President Donald Trump is expected to announce, as early as Monday, a general framework to address health care costs, calling on Congress to send a bill to his desk that would halt Affordable Care Act premium spikes, according to two White House officials familiar with the plans.
The announcement is expected to occur at the White House, and is slated to feature remarks from Trump and Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, according to both officials.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., were expected to be briefed on the plan Sunday afternoon, one of the White House officials said.
The proposal comes at a tricky time for the president and the Republican Party. With Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies set to expire at year’s end — causing massive cost spikes for nearly 22 million Americans and the introduction last week of a separate bipartisan proposal from House members for a two-year extension of Obamacare subsidies — there is a sense of urgency for Trump to put forward his own plan, the officials said.
Trump’s proposal, which could change, represents the president’s first substantive policy initiative on health care since the start of the government shutdown in which Democrats demanded that Congress act to extend ACA subsidies set to expire at the end of this year. In exchange for reopening the government, Senate Republicans agreed to hold a mid-December vote on extending the subsidies. But there’s no guarantee that the vote will succeed in either chamber.
As Democrats highlighted the imminent ACA premium hikes during the shutdown, they placed political pressure on Trump and Republicans to come up with their own plan.
Trump’s proposed legislation, called the “Healthcare Price Cuts Act,” according to both White House officials, would seek to terminate what one of the White House officials referred to as “surprise premium hikes” generated by the ACA. The plan would also eliminate “zero-premium” subsidies currently offered under the ACA, intending to stop “ghost beneficiaries,” a frequent Republican concern about alleged fraudulent policy recipients by requiring a small minimum payment as a means to verify eligibility to receive benefits.
The nascent plan also features a deposit program that would incentivize lower-premium options on the ACA exchange. For individuals who downgrade coverage, the difference in coverage costs would be distributed to a “Health Savings Account” provided with taxpayer dollars.
The political appetite is strong on both sides of the aisle for doing something on health care before the ACA subsidies expire. Some 74 percent of Americans support extending the ACA tax credit, including 50 percent of Republicans, according to recent polling from KFF, the nonpartisan health care research group.
Trump is also expected to request that Congress codify into law “Most Favored Nation” drug-pricing policy through a separate bill, according to one of the White House officials.
Jake Traylor
Jake Traylor is a White House correspondent for MS NOW.