2. Will medical device regulation be reduced?
Part of Trump’s healthcare plans include changes to the FDA. His plan says he wants to “reform the Food and Drug Administration, to put greater focus on the need of patients for new and innovative medical products.” Easing regulation on the FDA may speed up the process for new medicines and technologies going on the market. On the campaign trail, Trump spoke about reducing the size of the federal workforce, which in turn could cause some problems for some medical device regulatory agencies like the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, according to the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation.
Additionally, Trump’s views on sending work overseas may be a negative for some medical device manufacturers, which have supply chains reaching around the world. His idea of punishing companies that send jobs overseas may reduce the number of medical devices that manufacturers can export.
Gregory Dennis says
Whatever changes the new Administration and Congress make to the ACA will inevitably be known as Trumpcare. And that seems to have given them great pause. Latest analysis is that they won’t do anything to the ACA this year, because it’s a complex set of programs and changing it will have many ripple effects — both on the healthcare industry and everyday Americans.
I hope we can refrain from big changes in the ACA for the sake of patients who would love coverage under many of the proposed changes, and for the sake of businesses, which need certainty and are facing great uncertainty if the ACA is repealed without a clear and sensible replacement.
Chris Newmarker says
Thanks for the comment, Gregory. Good points.