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Trump still working on health care proposal, White House says

Josh Wingrove and Rachel Cohrs Zhang, Bloomberg News on

Published in Health & Fitness

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is still working on a proposal to address a spike in Obamacare health insurance premiums, but the eventual plan may differ significantly from details reported over the weekend, the White House said Monday.

“As you all know, sometimes you report things and then President Trump comes out with an announcement, and those things are not always true from what you hear from sources inside the building,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

The comments add to the murkiness surrounding an expected effort by the White House to put forward a health care plan amid opposition from some on Capitol Hill.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday that the administration would unveil the initiative this week, but Leavitt didn’t address questions about timing. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on whether the proposal would still be released this week, or delayed.

“The president is very much involved in these talks, and he’s very focused on unveiling a health care proposal that will fix the system and will bring down costs for consumers,” Leavitt said. “As for the details of those discussions, I’ll let the president speak for himself.”

Trump’s plan would have extended larger subsidies for those purchasing health insurance on the Affordable Care Act exchanges while imposing new income limits and requiring every enrollee to pay at least a nominal monthly premium, according to people familiar with the plan.

Subsidies first enacted during the Biden administration that reduced premiums on plans purchased under Obamacare expire at year’s end, threatening to increase prices for more than 20 million Americans who obtain insurance through the program.

 

Trump was scheduled to unveil the proposal Monday but backtracked due to congressional backlash, the cable news network MS NOW reported, citing anonymous sources.

Health care and hospital operator stocks pared gains on the news.

The government shutdown earlier this year was triggered by Democrats’ insistence on an extension of the increased subsidies in exchange for a vote to fund the government. Ultimately, a funding bill passed with the help of a handful of Senate Democrats after Republican lawmakers agreed only to hold a vote on the issue, which is scheduled for next month.

The issue has become a political vulnerability for Trump, with polls showing voters increasingly concerned about cost-of-living issues. These insurance subsidies largely benefit people in Republican-led states and the president is working to shore up support from his base ahead of midterm elections next year.

Trump had previously said he would not support legislation expanding Obamacare subsidies and said he hoped to secure an alternative solution by Jan. 30.

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