President Donald Trump is calling on Republicans to have solutions ready by late January to address healthcare costs that will spike once Obamacare subsidies lapse at the end of the year.
“We have a Jan. 30 day coming up, I’d like to see if we could do it by then,” Trump told Fox News Radio on Friday. “They say, ‘Well, let’s go another year.’ And I said, ‘let’s see if we can get it done by Jan. 30.’”
“I want to give the money that we give to the insurance companies directly to the people, that the people buy their own health insurance, and that’s what’s going to happen,” the president added. “I believe that there’s good support on both sides for that.”
The statements mark the first time the president has put forth an explicit timeline for his healthcare plans, which he has said will include a proposal for “Trumpcare” that would ultimately replace the Affordable Care Act.
It comes as Congress is racing to find a solution to the premium problem, as roughly 22 million people who get healthcare through the ACA exchange could face price hikes next year.
Democrats had pushed to extend the health subsidies as part of recent negotiations surrounding reopening the government, but a deal was reached earlier this month to end the shutdown without any guarantees about the future of the program.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida on Thursday introduced the More Affordable Care Act, a plan in line with Trump’s statements, that would direct federal funds to HSA-like “Trump Health Freedom” accounts which families could spend on purchasing private insurance.
Democrats have panned such proposals and warn they would give individuals little ability to lower health costs, given that most healthcare is bought from insurance companies at group rates.
As part of the reopening deal, Senate Republicans are expected to vote on health proposals by mid-December.
In the House, a group of bipartisan lawmakers have rolled out a completely different vision, the HOPE Act, which would extend some of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies for the next two years, while limiting eligibility criteria for higher-earning families.
“We’re trying to just lay the groundwork for something, build support for it, and that’s how you get something done. Because everybody knows this is going to be a political problem,” Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York told reporters on Friday of the plan. “Everybody knows this is going to hurt people in their real life.”
Republicans have tried to scale back or end Obamacare more than 70 times in the 15 years since it was passed, but the party has failed to create a big-picture alternative of its own.
Healthcare, and affordability more broadly, has increasingly become a core issue as the Republican Party looks to the 2026 midterms, and it has at times proved divisive, helping drive the recent public split between President Trump and his former top ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
