President Donald Trump is expected to make healthcare a key part of his 2020 State of the Union address to Congress, according to a senior administration official.

Trump plans to lay out "very specific requests for the Congress to do certain things on healthcare," particularly on lowering the costs for services and treatments, the official told reporters on Jan. 31 in a briefing to preview the president's Feb. 4 speech at the Capitol.

In his address, Trump also intends to criticize Democratic healthcare proposals, such as the single-payer plans sponsored by presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

After more than three years in office, Trump has yet to reveal his own healthcare plan — something he has been promising to do since he was on the 2016 campaign trail.

Trump's Department of Justice and a coalition of Republican state attorneys general are in the midst of attempting to invalidate the Affordable Care Act — former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement — and its patient protections through a lawsuit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, which has yet to decide if and when it will hear the case.

Late last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there was no urgent reason why Trump should unveil the healthcare plan he has repeatedly vowed to provide to Americans, saying that because the Supreme Court decided not to expedite its review of the lawsuit, the 2010 Obama law would remain in place for "some time."

Drug prices

The senior administration official would not provide details about whether Trump would put forward any new ideas for lowering the costs of Americans' prescription medicines in his speech or voice support for any pending legislation, such as the bipartisan bill from Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Trump has already said he opposes a drug pricing bill from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., which was adopted by her chamber in December 2019.

The White House has been pressing Republicans on Capitol Hill to get behind two of Trump's proposals: basing U.S. drug prices on products sold in foreign nations and allowing states to import certain medications.

In a Jan. 30 letter to Azar, a coalition of 52 conservative groups, led by Americans for Tax Reform, said implementing the foreign pricing proposal would "be a mistake" and would "import socialist style price controls that will harm patients and innovation."

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America told its members and the media in a Jan. 30 email that the administration "continues to ignore all the evidence showing that when governments set the price of medicines, medical innovation slows and patients lose access to lifesaving treatments."

Trump's foreign pricing proposal has lingered at the White House Office of Management and Budget since June 2019.

PhRMA also opposes Trump's two-pronged approach to import drugs from Canada and other foreign nations into the U.S.

Coronavirus

The senior administration official declined to tell reporters if Trump would tout the administration's response to the new coronavirus that has infected over 17,300 people worldwide and killed more than 360.

On Jan. 31, the U.S. declared the 2019 novel coronavirus, or 2019-nCoV, a public health emergency and imposed a 14-day quarantine on any Americans who had visited Hubei province, China, in the past two weeks.

Trump also issued a proclamation to block entrance into the country of any foreign nationals who had traveled in China in the last 14 days.

The U.S. also warned Americans last week not to travel to China.

Nearly a dozen people in the U.S. have been infected with 2019-nCoV.

New FDA chief addresses staff

Meanwhile, Trump's new head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Stephen Hahn, held his first "all-hands" meeting with employees on Jan. 30, telling scientists and other staff that the agency "must maintain the vital balance between the speedy approval of new products and the integrity of the data and the process itself."

In a follow-up memo to FDA staff, Hahn noted the ongoing effort for data modernization and integration, stating it would continue to be a priority under his tenure.

Hahn said he also wanted to continue building on the FDA's work of integrating patient-level data and real-world evidence, like information from electronic health records sand patient registries, into the agency's regulatory processes and "further empower the American public."