Trump revokes Biden executive order on competition impacting healthcare markets

President Donald Trump has rescinded an executive order from the Biden administration written to promote competition in markets.

Biden’s order explicitly aimed to bolster antitrust enforcement in many industries, including healthcare, and laid out an agenda to accomplish this goal.

Specifically, it called out hospital consolidation in rural communities, overly inhibitive patent laws in the prescription drug market and monopoly abuses among health insurance industry leaders.

The official revocation did not explain the decision, but top officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) both released statements in support of the move.

“America First Antitrust focuses on empowering the American people in the free markets, not enabling regulators and bureaucrats to prescribe outcomes,” said Abigail Slater, assistant attorney general and for the antitrust division at the DOJ, in a statement.

“The now-withdrawn executive order encouraged top-down competition regulations, and established a flawed philosophical underpinning for the Biden-Harris Administration’s undue hostility toward mergers and acquisitions,” said FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson.

Biden’s order supported a policy shift to enact a public health insurance option and allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, as well as thwarting consolidation by enforcing the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act.

The order also supported the FTC to take action to remove non-compete clauses in the workplace, and crack down on excessive data collection.

Xavier Becerra, then Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was encouraged to push for greater price transparency among providers and payers.

“The competition order had 77 short-term directives that were mostly accomplished,” said David Dayen, executive editor at the American Prospect and an anti-monopoly advocate, in a post on X. “It’s needlessly gratuitous to kill it, mostly to signal to monopolists that they have a clear path.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, called the Trump administration’s decision a “step backward” for consumers. No further executive order or guidance was released clarifying the role of competition in markets.

The Trump administration’s decision to revoke the Biden executive order was also applauded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a national business trade association.

“By revoking the executive order, President Trump has rightfully chosen vigorous competition that entrusts American consumers to pick winners and losers in the marketplace, not more government bureaucracy,” said Senior Vice President for Antitrust Sean Heather.

To some critics, the latest move aligns with the perception that Trump is too receptive to certain wishes of big business.

This month, UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys closed a $3.3 billion merger deal, allowing the home health company to join UHG’s Optum unit.

Conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute has criticized the Trump administration for its close ties to Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm Attorney General Pam Bondi worked as a partner. UnitedHealthcare is one of Ballard Partners' clients, reported Politico.

Wound care companies have also found they can successfully lobby for their interests with Trump if they donate to a political committee aligned with the president, reported the New York Times. Ballard Partners represents Extremity Care, one of the wound care companies listed.