Professor Robert Field questioned GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s pledge to improve health care for Americans in a post published in his Field Clinic blog in the Philadelphia Inquirer on Sept. 30.

Field law took Trump to task for claims made in a 60 Minutes interview that CBS aired on Sept. 27, in which the GOP presidential front runner promised to repeal Obamacare and “take care of everybody” by making “a deal with existing hospitals.”

“Does this mean we would receive all of our care from hospitals? What about physicians, pharmacies and outpatient clinics? Trump seems to have a lot more deal-making to do,” wrote Field, an authority on health policy and health care law and the author of two Oxford University Press books on the subjects.  “Who will pay for the care? That’s also easy - the government.  Say what?  Is Donald Trump proposing a huge new government social program?  It sure sounds that way, although he didn’t put it in those terms.”

In the past, Trump has supported the concept of universal health care coverage, Field noted.  Yet in the 60 Minutes interview, he said, Trump offered no details as how the private system he now proposes would be funded.

“Health care coverage is extremely complex, whether it is provided by the government or by private companies,” Field said.  “Making promises is easy.  Devising a plan that is coherent and workable is not."