type: timeline_event
President Trump released "The Great Healthcare Plan" via social media video, accompanied by a one-page fact sheet—fulfilling a campaign promise made since 2016 that he would reveal his "great healthcare plan." The announcement came as millions faced skyrocketing ACA premiums after enhanced subsidies expired at the end of 2025 due to Republican opposition to extension.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, CMS administrator, explicitly called it a "broad framework" when pressed for details. The plan contained no specifics on funding amounts, eligibility criteria, distribution mechanisms, or implementation timeline. It proposed four pillars: codifying "Most-Favored-Nation" drug pricing, ending ACA subsidies to send money "directly to Americans" via health savings accounts, requiring insurance price transparency, and ending PBM kickbacks.
Senator Patty Murray criticized it as "one entire page" that would do "absolutely NOTHING to stop your premiums from more than doubling." Senator Ron Wyden called it another of Trump's "empty promises." The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated cost-reducing provisions might save $50 billion over a decade, but ACA changes could increase deficits by up to $350 billion.
Following the announcement, Trump proposed keeping Medicare Advantage rates essentially flat (less than 0.1% increase versus 4-6% expected), causing insurance stocks to plummet: Humana dropped 20%, CVS Health shed 13%, and UnitedHealth Group lost 19%. As one analysis noted: "When Trump ran for president in 2024, he said he had only 'concepts of a plan'...His new proposal, short on many specifics, appeared to be the concept of a plan."