It may sound appealing, it may even sound logical, but is it incredibly naive and ignores human nature and human behavior affecting 340 million people.
Many of their proposals can be used by people now – various retirement accounts, health saving accounts, selecting high deductible lower premium, plans, etc. so why don’t they?
There is reliance on people saving more for both healthcare and retirement. Americans generally don’t save enough now. Where will additional funds come from, what will change the will to save and change lifestyle? It can’t be from lower taxes as our national deficit, debt and interest payment continue to increase … or maybe with current logic we should lower taxes 🥵
When the document says “let insurance companies offer cheaper, customized plans with fewer mandatory benefits so individuals can buy only the coverage they choose,” it ignores adverse selection and spreading risk. It also ignores how people balk at high deductibles and co-pays.
Individual responsibility empowerment and greatly reduced regulation are at the core of the thinking expressed by Project 2025 and embraced by Mr Trump. Does it all sound like it is in your best interest?
The Project 2025’s document explicitly argues that government safety-net programs and federal mandates stifle personal choice and inflate costs. Its solution is to shift financial responsibility to individuals while stripping away federal regulations to create a freer market in both retirement and healthcare.
Here is how that philosophy breaks down across savings, healthcare, and deregulation:
1. Healthcare Savings & Deregulation
Project 2025 proposes giving individuals more direct control over how they save and spend their health dollars, paired with scaled-back insurance rules:
- Expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): The document advocates expanding HSA limits and flexibility, allowing individuals to use pre-tax savings for a broader range of options, including Direct Primary Care (paying doctors monthly subscriptions directly without insurance companies acting as middlemen).
- Universal Savings Accounts (USAs): The blueprint suggests establishing tax-advantaged USAs allowing individuals to contribute up to $15,000 annually in post-tax earnings. Gains would grow tax-free and could be withdrawn anytime for healthcare or general needs without standard penalties.
- Stripping ACA Mandates: It calls for rolling back central Affordable Care Act coverage requirements and essential health benefit rules. The idea is to let insurance companies offer cheaper, customized plans with fewer mandatory benefits so individuals can buy only the coverage they choose.
- Repealing Price Regulations: It recommends repealing the federal drug-price negotiation provisions under the Inflation Reduction Act, operating on the principle that government price controls distort market pricing.
2. Retirement Savings & Deregulation
While the 900-page Mandate for Leadership omits a specific step-by-step formula for overhauling Social Security, its provisions for retirement focus on self-reliance and deregulation:
- Fostering Private Retirement Options: To make it easier for non-traditional workers to save, the blueprint encourages regulatory “safe harbors” so employers can allow independent contractors to participate in retirement programs. It also advocates for rules that expand Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs).
- Individual vs. Government Responsibility: The overarching goal is to reduce reliance on federal entitlement programs by expanding personal tax-sheltered accounts (like USAs and IRAs).
- Connection to Conservative Retirement Proposals: Related blueprints from allied groups involved in Project 2025 (such as the Republican Study Committee) actively recommend raising the Social Security full retirement age (e.g., from 67 to 69). The rationale is that individuals should rely more heavily on personal savings and private investments over a longer working life.
The Bottom Line
Project 2025 operates on the principle of “consumer sovereignty.” It assumes that if the federal government steps back—removing insurance rules, benefit mandates, and administrative overhead—individuals will have more freedom and tax-incentivized ways to save, shop, and pay for their own healthcare and retirement needs.
Remember, all this is the basic ideology which Mr Trump follows.
If he could pull it off this would be your life…largely do it yourself.
The very ideology ignores the great differences among people, their intelligence, education, experiences, income, attitudes, exercise of responsibility, etc.
What people should do is rarely what they consistently actually do.
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