The administration is poised to issue a rule making it easier for small businesses to band together and create insurance plans that skirt many requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
As drug prices rise to new heights, President Trump wants to require insurers to reduce out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries, but critics see his proposals as prohibited interference.
The president said he would promote more competition among pharmaceutical companies, but didn’t call for Medicare to directly negotiate lower prices or consumers to be able to import low-cost drugs.
Breaking a campaign promise, President Trump will not push for the plan, which was popular with voters but not other Republican politicians, when he speaks on Friday about soaring prescription costs.
Evaluations of state experiments “generally lacked rigor,” and the findings were often kept secret for years, so they were of little use, a government report said.