<\/p>\n
An empty bed in a room at the emergency department at a hospital in San Diego.<\/p>\n
(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said he will not support legislation to extend expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies even as senators are preparing to tee up a vote on the issue, complicating his party\u2019s efforts to address health care costs.<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg<\/p>\n
Trump said the only health-care plan he would \u201cSUPPORT OR APPROVE\u201d would be \u201cSENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE\u201d instead of to insurance companies, in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. He went on to urge lawmakers to \u201cnot waste your time and energy on anything else,\u201d casting his proposal as \u201cthe only way to have great Healthcare in America.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s comments come as Senate Republicans prepare to hold a vote on extending Obamacare tax credits, which are slated to expire at the end of this year. Democrats tried unsuccessfully to force Republicans to extend Obamacare tax credits during a weekslong government shutdown but were only able to secure a pledge from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, to hold a vote on extending the tax credits.<\/p>\n
With millions of Americans facing a potential hike in their premiums and with concerns about affordability front and center among the electorate, Democrats are seizing on the issue. Republicans now face the challenging prospect of either bucking the president and extending subsidies or finding another solution to the issue of health-care costs, an issue that has long vexed lawmakers.<\/p>\n
Some 24 million people on Affordable Care Act insurance face health care premiums soaring an average of 114%. Millions more are expected to lose Medicaid when the cuts in Trump\u2019s \u201cbig beautiful bill\u201d kick in just after the midterm elections.<\/p>\n
A KFF Health Tracking poll published Nov. 6 showed that 74% of those surveyed want the subsidies extended, with 94% of Democrats and 76% of independent voters in favor, along with 50% of Republicans. And a study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities showed that the closest existing policy to Trump\u2019s idea \u2014 health savings accounts \u2014 do not improve health care affordability and wouldn\u2019t offset the loss of coverage if Congress fails to extend the subsidies.<\/p>\n
Rising premiums offer to play into Democrats\u2019 narrative that Trump\u2019s policies are exacerbating a cost crunch for American households. Off-year state and local elections earlier this month saw a number of Republican candidates lose races in which affordability concerns played prominently.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans created this health care crisis, and they continue to try to rip affordable health care away from the American people,\u201d House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said. \u201cThey are who they are, and the American people know it, and they\u2019re going to pay the price.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump has long sought to eliminate Obamacare \u2014 dating back to his first term in the White House. His own replacement plan, however, faces numerous obstacles. Insurance is usually purchased by groups of people, allowing prices to be negotiated and risks shared. Payments from healthy people also subsidize care for those who are ill.<\/p>\n
–With assistance from Erik Wasson.<\/p>\n
(Updates to add KFF poll, Jeffries remarks in paragraphs 6, 8.)<\/p>\n
Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/p>\n
\u00a92025 Bloomberg L.P.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An empty bed in a room at the emergency department at a hospital in San Diego. (Bloomberg) —…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":388065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[7023,3638,69,210,1141,1142,7337,185026,165469,3172,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-388064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-affordable-care-act","9":"tag-bloomberg","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-health-care","13":"tag-healthcare","14":"tag-insurance","15":"tag-obamacare-tax","16":"tag-senate-republicans","17":"tag-tax-credits","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115571967113408673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}