President Donald Trump hinted at a potential replacement for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, that could bear his own name.
In a Monday night interview with FOX News, the president briefly outlined a proposal that would allow Americans to negotiate their own health insurance, rather than rely on government subsidies.
“That would be so exciting,” Trump told Fox anchor Laura Ingraham. “Call it Trumpcare. Call it whatever you want…Anything but Obamacare!”
The president’s remarks come two months before ACA subsidies are set to expire, which could lead millions of Americans to face higher premiums and risk losing coverage, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Democrats have demanded the subsidies be extended in order to end the government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history.
“I said it’s going to be a disaster. And I was exactly right,” Trump told FOX News. “The premiums have gone up like rocket ships. And I’m not just talking about recently. I’m talking about for years they’ve been going up.”
Total premiums have indeed risen in recent years, climbing by more than 24 percent since 2019, according to NPR.
The president then proposed his alternative plan, albeit with few details.
“Instead of going to the insurance companies, I want the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance,” Trump said.
“The insurance will be better,” he added. “It’ll cost less. Everybody’s going to be happy. They’re going to feel like entrepreneurs.”
The president outlined a similar proposal over the weekend, writing on Truth Social, “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…”
In response, Florida Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, enthusiastically announced he’s “writing the bill right now.”
Meanwhile, California Sen. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, told ABC News: “We have no idea what the president means except it sounds like what he means is the same old, tired proposal of repealing the Affordable Care Act, giving people a benefit in the form of a health savings account, but allowing insurance companies once again to cancel policies and refuse to write policies for people who have preexisting health conditions.”
Trump has made opposing the ACA, former President Barack Obama’s signature piece of legislation passed in 2010, one of the defining features of his political career.
On the 2016 campaign trail, he repeatedly vowed to repeal and replace the law. However, multiple Republican attempts to do so ultimately failed in Congress.
When pressed about his alternative to Obamacare during the 2024 campaign, Trump memorably stated that he had “concepts of a plan” but offered few specifics on how his plan would differ from the existing system.
