WASHINGTON -- Healthcare played a major part in Tuesday's State of the Union address, with President Trump covering a wide variety of health-related topics.
Only a few minutes into the speech, the president foreshadowed some of his healthcare themes. "Many of us have campaigned the same core promises to defend American jobs and ... to reduce the price of healthcare and prescription drugs," Trump said. "It's a new opportunity in American politics if only we have the courage together to seize it."
A few minutes later, he touted some of his administration's actions so far. "We eliminated the very unpopular Obamacare individual mandate penalty," Trump said. "And to give critically ill patients access to lifesaving cures, we passed -- very importantly -- the right to try."
Drug Prices a Major Player
The subject of drug prices occupied a fair amount of time. "The next major priority for me, and for all of us, is to lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs and to protect patients with preexisting conditions," he said. "Already, as a result of my administration's efforts in 2018, drug prices experienced their single largest decline in 46 years. But we must do more. It's unacceptable that Americans pay vastly more than people in other countries for the exact same drugs, often made in the exact same place."
"This is wrong; this is unfair, and together we will stop it, and we'll stop it fast," he said. "I am asking the Congress to pass legislation that finally takes on the problem of global freeloading and delivers fairness and price transparency for American patients, finally."
He then turned to several other health topics. "We should also require drug companies, insurance companies, and hospitals to disclose real prices, to foster competition, and bring costs way down," Trump said. He quickly moved on to the AIDS epidemic. "In recent years we've made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Scientific breakthroughs have brought a once distant dream within reach. My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years."
"We have made incredible strides, incredible," he added to applause from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. "Together we will defeat AIDS in America and beyond."
Childhood Cancer Initiative
Although the remarks on HIV , the president also announced another health initiative that wasn't as well-known: a fight against childhood cancer. "Tonight I'm also asking you to join me in another fight all Americans can get behind -- the fight against childhood cancer," he said, pointing out a guest of First Lady Melania Trump: Grace Eline, a 10-year-old girl with brain cancer.
"Every birthday, since she was 4, Grace asked her friends to donate to St. Jude's Children's Hospital," Trump said. "She did not know that one day she might be a patient herself [but] that's what happened. Last year Grace was diagnosed with brain cancer. Immediately she began radiation treatment, and at same time she rallied her community and raised more than $40,000 for the fight against cancer."
"Many childhood cancers have not seen new therapies in decades," he said. "My budget will ask Congress for $500 million over the next 10 years to fund this critical life-saving research."
These health initiatives met with mixed reactions. "President Trump is taking a bold step to design an innovative program and strategy, and commit new resources, to end HIV in the United States ... Under the President's proposal, the number of new infections can eventually be reduced to zero," Carl Schmid, deputy executive director of The AIDS Institute, said in a statement. Michael Ruppal, the institute's executive director, added, "While we might have policy differences with the president and his administration, this initiative, if properly implemented and resourced, can go down in history as one of the most significant achievements of his presidency."
But the Democratic National Committee (DNC) wasn't quite so enthusiastic; it sent an email calling the goal of ending HIV by 2030 "notable" but added, "The Trump administration has consistently undermined advancements in HIV/AIDS research, attacked people living with HIV/AIDS, and sabotaged access to quality healthcare at every opportunity." Among other things, the administration from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to help fund the separation of immigrant families, and by over $1 billion, which could cause 300,000 deaths per year, the DNC said.
Abortion in the Spotlight
As for the childhood cancer initiative, "$500 million over 10 years to solve childhood cancer is ... not a lot," . However, Gail Wilensky, PhD, a senior fellow at Project HOPE, in Bethesda, Maryland, pointed out that this amount " is in addition to the National Institutes of Health budget [for cancer] ... A lot of money is going to cancer anyway [already] and the National Cancer Institute been one of the more protected parts of government, so it's not like they have a big deficit to make up."
Overall, "it was a surprisingly good speech," said Wilensky, who was the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under President George H.W. Bush. "It covered a lot of areas, and there were a number of issues that were very hard not to applaud ... I thought he did a pretty admirable job of forcing applause and a sense of togetherness by the country, talking about compromise and the common good."
The president also touched on a more controversial area of healthcare: abortion. He referred to a recent abortion bill that passed in New York state and another that failed in Virginia -- both of which dealt with abortion late in pregnancy -- adding, "I'm asking Congress to pass legislation to prohibit late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in a mother's womb. Let us work together to build a culture that cherishes innocent life."
That appeal to the anti-abortion movement "is a position that Republicans have taken in the past, which is the importance of life right after birth and life right before birth," said Wilensky. Abortion later in pregnancy "is an area that tends to engender a more unified response than most others, even for people who are ambivalent or more supportive of abortion rights. Very late-term abortion makes people uncomfortable ... It's easy to understand why people get uneasy."
"Already, the biggest moves the Trump administration has made to control health care costs and access has been on the regulatory front," said Bob Laszewski, founder of Health Policy and Strategy Associates, an Alexandria, Virginia, consulting firm, citing the announcement of proposed regulations to end drug rebates under Medicare and Medicaid kickback rules and rules for short-term health plans. "I take it from Trump's remarks that they will continue with this regulatory approach instead of waiting for any bipartisanship in the Congress," he said.
"The only area there now seems to be a hint of bipartisanship is over the issue of drug prices being too high," Laszewski added. "It was clear from Trump's remarks, and the Democrats' positive response on this one issue, that this could become an area for cooperation."
No Large-Scale Reforms Offered
Rosemarie Day, a healthcare consultant in Somerville, Massachusetts, said in an email that the president "certainly did not propose any large-scale reforms to the healthcare system during the speech, and he was short on specifics for most of it. According to a , health care is the number one issue among voters, so this may appear to some as a missed opportunity. It's increasingly looking like Republicans are leaving the big health care reform ideas to the Democratic presidential candidates."
The ideas he did propose "were mostly noncontroversial and somewhat vague," Day continued. "The more interesting proposal was lowering the cost of healthcare and drugs, which is a high priority for consumers. The way he discussed going about it was by requiring drug companies, insurance companies, and hospitals to disclose real prices. This raises many questions, such as what does a 'real' price mean? ... This will be an interesting area to watch, since 'real prices' are currently closely held secrets, and a legal requirement to disclose them would constitute a significant change from the status quo."
In the Democratic response to the speech, Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully last year for governor of Georgia, lashed out against enemies of Obamacare. "Rather than suing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act as Republican attorneys general have, our leaders must protect the progress we've made and commit to expanding healthcare and lowering costs for everyone," said Abrams, the first black woman to deliver the rebuttal to a State of the Union address.
She also spoke of her personal struggle with healthcare costs for her family. "My father has battled prostate cancer for years. To help cover the costs, I found myself sinking deeper into debt because, while you can defer some payments, you can't defer cancer treatment. In this great nation, Americans are skipping blood pressure pills, forced to choose between buying medicine and paying rent."
She also pushed back against state governors and legislators who continue their resistance to Medicaid expansion. "In 14 states, including my home state, where a majority want it, our leaders refused to expand Medicaid which could save rural hospitals, save economies and save lives."
Washington Correspondent Shannon Firth contributed to this story.