“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE,” said President Donald Trump in a Saturday X post.
His comments come as Republicans and Democrats in Congress butt heads over healthcare funding and the Affordable Care Act, also known as ACA or Obamacare, extending what is already the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
CBS News reported Saturday that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told the media that his chamber will meet until the government reopens. Senators were in a rare session Saturday, but CBS said there were no signs of an “imminent breakthrough.”
In a recent statement, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he “demanded Republicans return to work to negotiate to extend vital Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits before their expiration, which is causing premiums to double,” and to end the government shutdown. Harvard Kennedy School explained that health insurance subsidies enacted by Congress in 2021 are at the heart of the negotiations.
“The subsidies we’re talking about are for coverage in private health insurance marketplaces, sometimes called ‘exchanges,’ that were created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014,” said Mark Shepard, Harvard Kennedy School associate professor of public policy.
Per the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, the ACA has prohibited insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions, required a minimum set of benefits be covered, and restricted the ways insurers can vary premiums. While the ACA has improved access for some, a review of the law published in the Journal of Surgical Research noted that the constantly evolving program has “has also faced challenges in legislation, funding, and support.”
The Washington Post reported Friday that premiums for healthcare sold through the ACA were soaring, both because subsidies are going away and health insurance costs are rising. In October, Audacy reported that six in 10 Americans were already worried about affording healthcare. Previous research has shown that Americans spend more on healthcare than other nations but have worse health outcomes comparatively.
Kaiser Family Foundation Tracking Poll results released Thursday showed that three quarters of the public continue to say Congress should extend the expiring tax credits, including more than nine in 10 (94%) Democrats, three in four (76%) independents, and half of Republicans. Results of a Scripps News/Talker Research poll released Friday found that seven in 10 Americans (69%) say they are concerned about affording their health insurance.
“The median annual premium for civilian workers was $1,560.00 for single coverage medical care benefits and $6,099.12 for family coverage,” said the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2024. This July, the PAN Foundation released poll results that revealed more than half of patients reported their health insurance denied coverage for critical medications.
As for Trump’s assessment of insurance companies as “money sucking” – polls show that many Americans tend to agree.
For example, results of a poll sponsored by Undue Medical Debt using NORC data collected this August and September found that “across party ID, voters agree that insurance companies are most at fault for medical debt – not healthcare providers or patients.” In July, the Pew Research Center also found that seven in 10 Americans believe health insurance companies have too much health policy influence.
Audacy even noted the unexpected public response to Luigi Mangione, a young man arrested for the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, last year.
“As information came out about his medical issues and critique of the insurance industry in his manifesto, Mangione has… garnered an unusual amount of public sympathy for a suspected killer, with some sharing their medical horror experiences in response to his story,” we reported.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said the plan to give Americans money directly instead of insurance companies will leave “money left over.”
“In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare. Unrelated, we must still terminate the Filibuster!” he added.
According to The Hill, lawmakers have failed at least 14 times to finalize the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) to the finish line amid disagreements about the ACA subsidies.