The One Big Beautiful Bill Act could pave the way for a less expensive healthcare system, spine surgeon Daniel Choi, MD, said.
Dr. Choi spoke with Becker’s to discuss the outcomes he hopes to see in light of the legislation.
Note: This conversation was lightly edited for clarity.
Question: President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act has received mixed reactions from spine surgeons. Do you think this will ultimately be a boon or a bust for the specialty?
Dr. Daniel Choi: I think that for all physicians, less government intervention in healthcare will always be better for the patient and for the profession. When you have a single payer system, which is what expansion of Medicaid really is, everyone is under one fee schedule. All health care services are valued completely equally whether it’s high-quality care or low-quality care, inefficient care or efficient care.
Medicaid ultimately was designed to be a safety net social program, so it doesn’t make sense to me that you take a safety net fee schedule and then say, “This is now a market fee schedule, and all health care services are on this.” It’s basically central planning, and giving the government more control over the healthcare system. You reduce competition, you increase waste, increasing inefficiencies. You need to introduce more free market principles and competition to the healthcare system to increase clinical output and to also increase efficiencies and drive down costs.
If we don’t increase competition we’re just going to keep having a more expensive healthcare system. I think that the Big Beautiful Bill with its caps on Medicaid and limits on Medicaid will ultimately help patients. If you really look at the way healthcare is gone in this country, coverage is just not care. It doesn’t mean that because you’re covered, that the healthcare system is delivering and giving you quality care the way it’s designed currently.
