President Donald Trump on Tuesday rejected the idea of extending Obamacare subsidies for two years, but said that extensions may be necessary in order to get a deal in place that could replace the existing system.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he would rather not give any extensions of the premium tax credits, which subsidize the cost of health insurance for families making under a certain amount of income.
But he might be open to a deal that agrees to replace Obamacare with a more free-market solution to health insurance in exchange for a subsidy extension until the new plan can be implemented.
“I don’t want to extend them for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all,” he said.
“Some kind of extension may be necessary to get something else done because the unaffordable care act has been a disaster,” he added, however.
Trump said he would release his own plan for health insurance soon.
“I like my plan the best: Don’t give any money to the insurance companies, give it to the people directly,” he said. “Let them go out and buy their own health care plan. And we’re looking at that, if that can work. We’re looking at that. That’s sort of taking off.”
Behind-the-scenes reports said that his plan would give people the money directly instead of paying insurance companies.
Obamacare enrollees who choose to downgrade to a high deductible plan could get part of the subsidy in an HSA, according to reports of the plan.
Without a subsidy extension, costs for existing enrollees could more than double, on average, at a time when most income-earners are stretched thin because of inflation over the last few years.
Trump said that there are a number of Democrats negotiating with him on a new plan, but declined to name any names.
“I can’t tell you who,” he said. “A lot of Democrats want this plan to happen. They would love to see the money go to the people and the people go out and get their own health care. And there would be nothing like it.”
The problem is, when Obamacare came into being, it amounted to a massive payout to the insurance companies and caused rates to skyrocket. Now, there's no good way to bring them back down.
The system is pretty much broken, and I don't know if Trump's plan will fix anything or just make it even worse.
