OPINION:
The Trump administration is right to focus on rebuilding America’s medical supply chain. The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed how vulnerable the United States can be when it lacks the capacity to produce essential products such as masks, gloves and ventilators.
Few disagree with the idea that the nation should be more self-reliant when it comes to critical health care supplies. Yet proposals to use national-security-based trade actions, such as Section 232 tariffs, on a wide range of medical devices and consumables risk creating new problems for hospitals and patients at precisely the wrong moment.
The Commerce Department is now examining whether to impose tariffs on imported medical equipment, and the list under review is extensive. It includes syringes, gloves, stents, wheelchairs, imaging systems and many other products central to daily patient care. These tools are used in operating rooms, emergency departments, outpatient clinics and long-term care facilities every hour of every day. Although the goal of encouraging domestic manufacturing is sound, the potential consequences — higher costs, supply disruptions and slower adoption of lifesaving technologies — could undermine patient care and the broader health care system.
Hospitals are especially vulnerable. Even before the pandemic, many were operating on thin margins. Now they face sharply rising labor costs, persistent workforce shortages and heavy financial pressure. A significant increase in the price of basic equipment could force hospitals to make difficult trade-offs. Every additional dollar spent on essential supplies is a dollar that can’t be invested in nurses, training programs, upgraded technology or community health initiatives. For rural hospitals and safety net providers in particular, there is little room for error. Adding new cost burdens would only deepen the strain.
Patients would feel the consequences too. Higher hospital costs eventually surface as increased insurance premiums, larger co-payments and reduced access to care. Families already struggling with medical bills could face even greater financial pressure. During crises such as pandemics, natural disasters and supply shortages, tariffs could slow the delivery of urgently needed equipment precisely when speed matters most.
The good news is that strengthening American manufacturing does not require putting patients at risk. A more effective strategy relies on investment and partnership, not blunt trade tools. The federal government can support domestic production through targeted tax incentives, accelerated regulatory pathways and long-term purchasing commitments that give manufacturers confidence to invest.
Equally important, the U.S. must maintain strong global cooperation. Medical innovation that starts at home relies on our partners from abroad. Many breakthrough devices and technologies are developed through cross-border agreements. If the U.S. relies on sweeping tariffs or isolates itself from global supply networks, it risks slowing innovation, reducing access to cutting-edge tools and weakening its own manufacturing competitiveness. Balanced, strategic engagement will do more to strengthen American industry than broad import restrictions.
The administration has shown in other areas that industrial policy and public health goals can work hand in hand. That same balanced approach should guide medical supply policy. We can build a stronger domestic manufacturing base through cooperation, innovation and patient-centered decision-making, not through punitive measures that impose new costs and limit care.
America’s health security is defined not only by where a product is made but also by whether patients can access the care they need, when they need it. Tariffs are a blunt instrument for a complex challenge. To build a more secure nation, we must focus on making care more affordable, resilient and accessible. National security begins with the health of the American people.
• Rear Adm. Kenneth Moritsugu, M.D., served as acting surgeon general of the United States and deputy surgeon general.
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