Donald Trump
Like him or hate him, President Donald Trump has the medical device industry’s attention. For the most part, the industry’s top executives have sounded positive during earnings calls with analysts. Medtech insiders are especially optimistic that the much-hated medical device excise tax will soon be dead for good and that Trump and his fellow Republicans will get regulators out of the way of innovation.
Trump’s unpredictable style, however, appears to be generating a great deal of uncertainty. As of March 24, Republican leaders had pulled the American Health Care Act – the plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act – as their own rank and file in the House revolted against the bill. Trump had threatened that the chance to repeal Obamacare would vanish if the proposal did not move forward. “We just pulled it,” Trump told The Washington Post.
What is going to happen with Medicare? Will Congress do something about drug prices? How protectionist will Trump’s trade policies be? Will deregulation at FDA and implementation of the 21st Century Cures Act be confusion-free?
And this, perhaps, is the most important question: What else is going to happen?