STEPHEN MOORE: Republicans can win on health care affordability

For most of the last 40 years, pollsters have asked voters: Which party do you trust more on health care? The answer has been pretty much the same over this whole period. Voters trust Democrats more, sometimes by a two-to-one margin.

When I've asked my Republican politicos why that is, the answer I typically receive is: Our party doesn't do health care. Then they crouch in the fetal position.

Well, the GOP certainly better start "doing health care," because the issue of medical care access and affordability is front and center for American families.

The Republican promise to voters should be better health care at half the cost.

Here are five easy pieces to this saner and higher-quality health care system.

First, follow President Donald Trump's lead from his State of the Union: "I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and give that money to the people." That's you and me.

This "patient power" approach is a direct assault on Washington's long-held allegiance to hospital oligopolies, insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers. The medical care dollars should follow the patients, and that means a range of options in how that money is spent to improve health.

One of those options should be the expansion of health savings accounts, which will incentivize patients to shop around for the best price they can find for health services. Another option should be low-premium catastrophic coverage plans that cover major, but not routine, costs. This is supported by 78% of voters.

Second, start every discussion of health care by reminding Americans of an undeniable truism: Obamacare has been a catastrophic mistake that has run up costs two to three times higher than expected. The Affordable Care Act has made health care much LESS affordable.

A recent poll we sponsored at Unleash Prosperity Now confirms this. Some two-thirds of voters rank the rising cost of health insurance as their single greatest health care concern.

Third, strike back at the health care industrial complex, which has made $1.5 trillion in profits since 2010. Obamacare made insurance companies and hospital conglomerates rich. One new study finds that hospital earnings have doubled since 2015 (not adjusted for inflation). The profits declined in 2025, but $400 billion in one year is a nice payday.

The giant health care corporations and their subsidiaries have taken over nearly every aspect of patient care in America: insurance, pharmacies, physician and emergency care practices, surgical centers, home health services and more. Why is that? Because liberal politicians, at the behest of big insurers, designed it that way.

When asked who they believe bears the greatest responsibility for rising health care, voters point to insurers and providers.

Fourth, reject price controls. Price controls on prescription drugs will delay new drug development and cause Americans more pain and suffering by keeping promising drugs off the market.

Fifth, require price transparency for all medical services and procedures. No surprise billing from hospitals and pharmacies for expensive pills and procedures with patients never informed of the price tag. In some towns, an MRI can cost $2,000 at some clinics and $5,000 down the street.

Republicans should endorse a "no price, no pay" policy that says that if patients attest to the fact that they never saw the bill, they don't have to pay for it.

This is a model of patient choice and market flexibility in making critically important health care decisions that could turn the medical establishment on its head.

Republicans should ask voters: Who do you trust to make the best health care decisions for you and your family: you, or the politicians who gave us the Obamacare scam?

Stephen Moore is a former Trump senior economic adviser and the cofounder of Unleash Prosperity, which advocates for education freedom for all children.