Trump Wants Healthcare Subsidies To Go To Individuals But Has No Detailed Plans
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump declared that his solution for the Exchange subsidy stalemate and high costs in healthcare generally is to have subsidies go directly to individuals to purchase healthcare. But Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that there is really no formal plan. Apparently, it was just musings from the president, along with a frontal assault on what he called “money sucking insurance companies.”
The president’s social media post stated: “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, and have 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!”
But of course, terminating Obamacare (the Medicaid expansion and Exchanges) would send millions onto the rolls of the uninsured. The subsidies would be meaningless for those unable to access healthcare via employer coverage, especially those with significant health risks. And the proposal does little to nothing on affordability itself.
Republicans are supposedly putting together a reform plan, including encouraging individual options and health savings accounts, banning Silver loading in the Exchanges perhaps by funding cost-sharing subsidies, and expanding employer-funded health reimbursement accounts to help consumers buy individually. The GOP also may expand short duration plans and association plans as well as further limit provider taxes and other spending in Medicaid.
The Affordable Care Act does need some reforms to bring more affordability, but the Republican plans remain a mishmash of prior proposals that fell short of comprehensive reform and coverage.
Additional articles: https://www.axios.com/2025/11/08/trump-affordable-care-act-subsidies-shutdown and https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-regulation/mh-republicans-aca-site-neutral-payments-shutdown/ and https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5596505-donald-trump-filibuster-reform-health-insurance-democrats-government-shutdown/ and https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5597877-government-shutdown-aca-debate/?tbref=hp
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#aca #obamacare #exchanges #medicaid #healthcare #coverage
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/08/trump-republicans-health-insurance.html
Government Shutdown Ending Soon
UPDATE — 11/10/2025 10:30 PM — The Senate passed the government funding bill on a 60-40 vote. The bill now goes back to the House.
Over the weekend, a gambit by GOP leaders to get enough Democrats in the Senate to vote for a reopening bill worked. Exactly eight Democrats moved over to the Republican side to ensure passage of a procedural vote that will allow a funding bill to pass after debate. The final vote is expected late tonight or tomorrow in the Senate and the bill would then move back to the House for passage over the next few days.
Democrats got some concessions, including full-year funding for nutrition and veterans funding. The rest of government would be funded through the end of January. As well certain healthcare funding facing expiration was extended along with delaying certain cutbacks. No enhanced Exchange subsidy expansion was agreed to, but Senate Leader John Thune, R-SD, promised a vote by mid-December.
The healthcare programs impacted include:
- Funding for community health centers, telehealth, hospital at home, and certain other hospitals
- Delaying cuts to the disproportionate share hospital program
The bill would pay for the short-term costs by extending 2% Medicare sequestration cuts by one month and by cutting $400 million from the Medicare Improvement Fund.
The bill will also ensure back pay to all federal workers as a reversal of layoffs.
Additional articles: https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-regulation/mh-senate-funding-deal-shutdown-telehealth-medicaid-dsh/ and https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/senate-government-shutdown-vote-no-aca-subsidy-extension/805102/ and https://www.modernhealthcare.com/politics-regulation/mh-democrats-shutdown-aca-subsidies-extension/
(Some articles may require a subscription.)
#governmentshutdown #congress #trump #healthcare #coverage #exchanges
Will Trump Tackle Healthcare Consolidation
A good Fierce Healthcare written by Kaiser Health News on where the Trump administration may land on anti-trust and healthcare consolidation issues.
It notes that health systems, doctor groups and insurers are merging and coalescing into ever-bigger entities. These consolidations clearly increase price and costs in the system. It also seems true that quality is not improved and may even decline. Access and choice are compromised too. The article notes that hospital consolidation especially increases price.
The Trump administration seemingly has taken a less aggressive stance on anti-trust than the previous one. But Trump’s populism, mentioned earlier in his weekend social media post, could yet have him attack consolidation, vertical integration, the role of private equity in healthcare, and more.
The article does a good job of discussing the complexity and sometimes opaqueness of the consolidations and mergers. It is hard to understand the fallout beforehand of the combinations, but government needs to rise to the occasion and have more scrutiny.
#manda #consolidations #mergers #acquisitions #healthcare #costs #healthplans #providers #hospitals
— Marc S. Ryan
