News

News

January 16, 2026

Trump pitches healthcare policy outline aimed at lowering costs

President Donald Trump released a sparsely detailed healthcare policy framework Jan. 15 that calls on Congress to codify voluntary drug pricing agreements with major pharmaceutical companies, direct payments to Americans over extending enhanced ACA subsidies, and expand price transparency requirements for insurers and providers. The proposal does not identify how most of its provisions would be implemented or enforced.

Three key takeaways:

1. Drug pricing

The “Great Healthcare Plan” would formalize the administration’s “most-favored-nation” pricing model, which ties U.S. drug costs to the lowest paid by peer nations, and preserves recent HHS and CMS agreements with drugmakers. Since September, 16 of the 17 largest drugmakers, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Sanofi, have signed voluntary deals applying the model to portions of their portfolios. Regeneron has not yet struck a drug pricing deal with the federal government.

The discounted medications, which include treatments for cancer, Type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, hepatitis B and C, and asthma, will also be available at most-favored-nation prices on TrumpRx, a federal direct-to-consumer website launching later this month. Several of the agreements include deep discounts on insulin and GLP-1 drugs used for diabetes and obesity. 

As part of these agreements, drugmakers will sell their medications to Medicaid under the most-favored-nation pricing. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have also agreed to sell Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound to Medicare under CMS’ new voluntary BALANCE model, which will supplement access to GLP-1 drugs with no-cost lifestyle programs.

The announcement comes as Medicare implements its first negotiated drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act. The program’s initial cycle capped costs Jan. 1 for 10 high-expenditure Medicare Part D drugs. A Vizient report released in December found that drugmakers began recalibrating pricing strategies years in advance, with many accelerating price increases for Part B and D products after the law passed in 2022. 

2. Insurance costs

For the insurance industry, the plan centers on eliminating direct ACA subsidy payments to insurers in favor of sending funds to eligible Americans to purchase their own coverage. The proposal does not specify the mechanism for these payments or whether purchased plans would need to meet ACA standards, including preexisting condition protections.

Some Republicans have been pushing health savings accounts as an alternative to extending enhanced ACA subsidies, which expired at the end of 2025. In the Senate, a bipartisan group’s draft legislation would create an HSA option in the second year of a two-year subsidy extension, though that proposal is not expected to be ready until the end of January.

The plan also calls for appropriating funding for cost-sharing reductions after insurers shifted these costs onto silver plan premiums through “silver loading” starting in 2017. The proposal claims it would save at least $36 billion and reduce the most common ACA plan premiums by more than 10%. The reversal would effectively undo a Trump administration policy from his first term that ended federal payments for CSRs and led to higher silver plan premiums.

Three transparency mandates would require insurers to publish plain-language rate and coverage comparisons, claim denial rates and average wait times for routine care, and the percentage of revenues that are paid out to claims versus overhead costs and profits on their websites. A fourth provision targets PBM kickbacks to brokers. 

The proposal comes as marketplace enrollment has dropped to 22.8 million for 2026, according to preliminary CMS data. The House passed a three-year subsidy extension Jan. 8, which has stalled in the Senate, and President Trump has hinted that he may veto any subsidy extension.

Congressional pressure on insurers is building ahead of dual Jan. 22 hearings where CEOs from UnitedHealth, CVS Health, Elevance, Cigna and Ascendiun (parent company of Blue Shield of California) will testify before House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees. The president separately said in early January that he plans to meet with 14 insurers over industry profits.

3. Price transparency

The plan calls for any healthcare provider or insurer that accepts Medicare or Medicaid to prominently post their pricing and fees in their place of business.

Federal price transparency laws have been in effect for hospitals since Jan. 1, 2021, and July 1, 2022, for payers. 

Since the laws were enacted, 27 hospitals have been fined for price transparency violations, with the first two fines issued in June 2022. Fines for alleged violations have ranged from $32,301 for Kentwood, La.-based Southeast Regional Medical Center to $979,000 for Jacksonville, Fla.-based UF Health North. To date, no payers have been fined for price transparency violations, despite research suggesting major gaps in published data.

Two price transparency updates are slated to take effect in 2026. Starting Feb. 2, payers will be required to update their machine-readable files to the schema 2.0 format, marking the first time payer MRFs have been updated since the law took effect in 2022. The focus of the changes appears to be adding more context to prices and reducing data sizes. 

Hospitals will see their own MRF changes April 1. The changes focus on three core areas: attestation language and executive accountability for file accuracy, new requirements for percentile allowed amount reporting and counts of allowed amounts, and National Provider Identifier reporting.

In December, CMS also proposed updates that would require insurers to simplify pricing data organization, reduce reporting frequency from monthly to quarterly and strengthen price comparison tools to make cost information more accessible to consumers.

Tyler Robinson’s lawyers try to disqualify entire Utah County Attorney’s office from prosecuting case because one lawyer’s child witnessed Charlie Kirk shooting

Defense attorneys in the murder case of Charlie Kirk have demanded that the Utah County Attorney’s Office be disqualified from working on the case, as one of the prosecutors on the team had an adult child who was present at the Utah Valley University event where Kirk was fatally shot.

Tyler Robinson‘s defense team has argued that the prosecutor, because of the child’s experience at the event, has a conflict of interest in the case. In some criminal cases, where there is a conflict of interest for prosecution or defense, they may have to be removed from the case. However, some legal experts have disagreed with the defense’s motion to pull the prosecutor of Robinson’s case, as the shooting has been made very public with thousands of witnesses. Millions more also saw it online.

“This is one of those motions I find ridiculous,” legal expert Donna Rotunno told Fox News. “Normally I like to see a vigorous defense and attorneys doing everything they can to protect their client, but this is one that I find frivolous in nature.”

“If the family member was the victim, then maybe this is an issue,” Rotunno said. “If Erika Kirk was related to a prosecutor, they would have more ground to stand on.” With the murder being at such a high-profile event with thousands in attendance, and the shooting also seen online by millions, the connection with the prosecutor’s child being at the event is not very unusual.

“The legal system takes conflicts of interest seriously, but a prosecutor isn’t automatically disqualified just because someone in their family witnessed a traumatic event connected to the case,” Randolph Rice, a Baltimore-based attorney and legal analyst, said. “The key issue is whether that relationship creates a real risk that decisions are being driven by emotion instead of evidence.”

The court system typically needs a “clear, direct conflict that threatens the defendant’s right to a fair trial” before the prosecution can be disqualified, Rice added. “At the same time, prosecutors also have a duty to avoid even the appearance of impropriety, especially in a high-profile capital case where public trust is already on edge.”

No sign of new protests in Iran as a hard-line cleric calls for executions and threatens Trump

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A cleric leading prayers in Iran’s capital has demanded the death penalty for detained protesters, showing the hard-line rage gripping the Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami’s sermon Friday was carried by Iranian state radio and sparked chants from those gathered for prayers. Executions and the killing of peaceful protesters are red lines laid down by Trump for possible military action against Iran. Khatami’s remarks also offered the first nationwide counts of damage done during the demonstrations that began Dec. 28 over Iran’s ailing economy. Iran cut off access to the internet Jan. 8 and intensified a bloody crackdown on all dissent. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency on Friday put the death toll from the crackdown at 2,797.

A South Korean court sentences Yoon to 5 years in prison on charges related to martial law decree

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court has sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison on some charges related to his imposition of martial law. The verdict is the first against Yoon in the eight criminal trials over the decree he issued in late 2024 and other allegations. The most significant charge against him alleges that he led a rebellion in connection with his martial law enforcement and it carries a potential death penalty. The Seoul Central District Court in the case decided Friday sentenced him for other charges like his defiance of authorities’ attempts to detain him and his alleged fabrication of official documents.

Canada agrees to cut tariff on Chinese EVs in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products

BEIJING (AP) — Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products. Prime Minister Mark Carney made the announcement Friday after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He says there will be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its tariff on the major Canadian export of canola seeds from about 84% to about 15%. Carney and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged earlier Friday to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony.

Social media platforms removed 4.7 million accounts after Australia banned them for children

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children in Australia. This follows the country’s ban on platform use by those under 16. Communications Minister Anika Wells announced the figures on Friday, highlighting the success of the law enacted in December. The ban has sparked debates about technology use, privacy, and child safety. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube and X face hefty fines if they fail to comply. Officials say the measure is encouraging, though some young users have found ways to bypass restrictions. Other countries, such as Denmark, are considering similar bans.

Stocks waver on Wall Street and remain near records

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks of corporate earnings season closes out with markets trading near record levels. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% in afternoon trading Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%. A handful of regional U.S. banks reported their earnings following mixed reports from their larger peers. Pittsburgh’s PNC jumped after it beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter targets, but Regions Financial fell after reporting results that missed forecasts. Crude oil prices rose after dropping sharply on Thursday. Treasury yields moved higher in the bond market.

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