Trump Urges Senate Republicans To Give Health Care Money 'Directly To The People' As Shutdown Talks Drag On

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Huff Post/Reuters

Nov 8, 2025, 10:05 AM EST | Updated 5 hours ago


WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Saturday urged Republican senators to redirect federal money used to subsidize health insurance costs under the Affordable Care Act toward direct payments to individuals, floating a potential compromise to an issue at the heart of the U.S. government shutdown.

“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 SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

“In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, ObamaCare,” he added, without offering further details.

Trump’s comments on Truth Social came just hours before the U.S. Senate was set to reconvene at noon (1700 GMT) after rejecting legislation on Friday that would have resumed paychecks for hundreds of thousands of federal workers during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-urges-lawmakers-give-health-care-money-directly-people_n_690f5a4de4b0dd4ea75bc676?origin=home-whats-happening-unit

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The equivalent of the same old GOP "voucher" is warmed-over nonsense and this is nothing but "Repeal".

[markie]

1. wow

the ignorance is overwhelming... this request is proof he has no understanding, no comprehension of the process, how ins companies work and how valuable the ACA is

[ananda]

5. Could that be because he's never had to use health insurance...

It's also true that his ignorance is overwhelming on everything,
so... who knows.

[LiberalArkie]

41. Just like he has never been in a grocery store and probably has no idea of how gas goes into vehicles. He has always

had "people" that do that for him since the day he was born

[3825-87867]

7. Yes!

v

[Ilsa]

2. Would the gains be offset by lack of group

bargaining power to keep charges in check? What's to keep clinics, hospitals, etc in check on pricing other than for Medicare? There are too many places where there is no competition.

[IbogaProject]

44. Then we circle back to surcharges for the unpaid

The biggest causes of our health cost bloat are the expense of administering claims on both the health providers and the insurance side, and malpractice insurance. Covering everything is projected to save money even during the first transition year. A single payer system would also eventually reduce other liability insurance like, automobile, workman's comp business and property liability coverages.

[Wiz Imp]

3. And how can people "PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE"?

Pretty much the only way is to purchase their own health insurance. So the insurance companies are getting the money regardless. Trump is probably too stupid to understand this, but I guarantee many Republicans in Congress do.

Giving money directly to people doesn't eliminate insurance companies. The only way to do that is through some universal or single payer health care system like pretty much every single country in the rest of the world has. Democrats favor this. It's the Republican party which is totally beholden to the insurance companies.

[mdbl]

11. "but I guarantee many Republicans in Congress do"

which ones so I can watch them act stupid anyway.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

35. It is the ramblings of an ignorant fool. You would have to "give" everyone enough money to..

...cover any health emergency or problem they would ever have--so, what, millions to every American? Or, you have to "give" them enough to buy insurance--so, basically the ACA?

At some point maybe he will realize that there is already a system in place that could be funded with that money and expanded to cover everyone not already covered under an insurance plan. It's called Medicare.

Democrats are already in favor of doing that.

When will MAGA call him out for being a socialist?

[mountain grammy]

4. Madman

[C_U_L8R]

6. That's something knuckledragging magats would cheer for

Then they’d go out and buy a bushel of cheez kurls and a 7 gallon bottle of caffeine corn syrup cola.

[J_William_Ryan]

8. This has to do with Trump's unwarranted contempt for the president who signed the ACA into law.

Having nothing whatsoever to do with helping Americans gain access to affordable healthcare.

[70sEraVet]

10. Our posts were two minutes apart....

But on the same wavelength, J!

[70sEraVet]

9. Trump has always wanted ObamaCare killed

That was one of the perks of the BBBill -- starving The ACA.
The fact that people will die means NOTHING to him.

[orangecrush]

19. Wants to tarnish Obama's legacy

In any way be can

[BigmanPigman]

12. Lindsey Graham is attempting to sell the tRump BS today

?si=dBegbGoj2E3EcmTY

[SunSeeker]

13. Suddenly Republicans don't like private health insurance?

They're the ones who tanked the public option!

Are they saying they're now for Medicare For All???

[BigmanPigman]

21. Who knows what the hell they are selling, they certainly don't.

It's obvious that team tRump has no clue as how to govern and their "message" is all over the place. It changes several times a day since their dear leader is a sadistic psychopath with advanced dementia. His own party has no idea what he is doing from one hour to the next.

[Prairie Gates]

31. Sure sounds like single payer

[SunSeeker]

34. Right?

[AllyCat]

14. I actually agree with him for once.

They ARE money-sucking insurance companies. But all agreement ends there. Just like incentives to buy EVs equaling the price increases for every electric car manufacturer, the price of housing and food going up when we got needed stimulus checks during covid, and giving any tax benefits for deductions on mortgages and such,

the industries that benefit raise their prices to take every dollar and then some.

[Skittles]

36. those money-sucking insurance companies give a LOT of money to the GOP

A.LOT.

[purr-rat beauty]

15. He is a fucking idiot

No idea how expensive healthcare is

Hey...here's $500!

Thanks!

That covered labs!

It lightened up the weight of the $150,000 for my vasectomy

[Skittles]

37. is that for real?

150K for a VASECTOMY???

[Grokenstein]

16. "take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies"

It's like reading the work of a child. And he talks like that because (1) he assumes he's talking down to comparative idiots, and (2) because his own brain is melted from age, disease, drug abuse and multiple other factors.

[DallasNE]

17. Trump Knows Nothing About How Healthcare Works

"Obamacare" is not insurance. It is a marketplace to purchase insurance. What makes it work is the subsidies. Private insurance is even more expensive than the insurance available from the marketplace because the government negotiates a discount. This would be how it was before Obamacare, which now covers something like 42 million people. That number was swollen when many companies discontinued their company plans and told their employees to enroll in Obamacare, so this would make matters much worse. Indeed, if it were as easy as cutting a check, it would have been done long ago.

[orangecrush]

18. Whacko

[Bluetus]

20. I was thinking "School Voucher" scam before I even got to the end of this posting

exactly as the author did.

But in this case, if there is a requirement that the recipients use the money to buy health insurance, then they will be dealing the same "money sucking" insurance companies. But they will pay 3X more because they will not benefit from being in a rating pool, and they will get penalized for anything the companies can call a pre-existing condition.

It is just another variation on the "Bankrupt the country so the government will fail" scheme. Practically everything the GOP does follows that same basic game plan.

[progree]

22. tRump has always favored letting people buy various kinds of junk insurance, which undoubtedly save people money --

-- until the bills show up. Like the Christian sharing health plans, the short-term plans, many others

The ACA, for all its faults, have requirements like ten essential things and more that must be covered, and other standards.

Before the ACA, it was impossible to compare insurance plans because there was no standard to compare to, and each one was full of fine print and marketing gimmicks (so during those years I just went "bare" ).

When the ACA came along, I felt much more confident in knowing what I was and wasn't getting.

Fortunately, I've been on Medicare for the last few years, so I don't have to keep up with what's going on with the ACA, other than, yes, I read the articles about huge jumps in premiums to be made even bigglier without the extended tax credits.

Oh, how isn't the tax credits a way to give money directly to the people? So why is he and the R's opposed to that?

We went thru all this with tRump and Republicans back in 2017, who came up with a plan (the AHCA (American Health Care Act) and the BCRA (Better Care Reconciliation Act), which were remarkably similar to the ACA except vastly underfunded -- such that premiums were expected to be much much higher (and coverage weaker) for most people, leading the CBO to estimate 22 million people would lose insurance as a result. Yet it came just one vote short of passing.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20767877

[popsdenver]

23. Trump and his spawn

have had plenty of time to rig a plan to grift a large %age of that money..........

[LaMouffette]

24. This is just another "THERE WILL BE NO TAXES ON TIPS!" ploy to try to keep his followers devoted to him.

I wouldn't be surprised if he offered every Republican voter a brand new pickup truck. "YOU get a truck! And YOU get a truck!"

He's that desperate to "get his ratings up" after the No Kings Rally and the devastating polls that have him tanking on every issue, which both showed him how much the majority of Americans despise him.

[NH Ethylene]

25. I can see it now.

He'll 'generously' offer to send out $2,000 to every American household for medical expenses (which of course would be a tiny fraction of what would be needed to replace insurance).

But inevitably he will send it only to those who 'deserve' it (meaning just the registered Republicans, or only to 'red' states).

That's what he would propose if he even had any wits about him. But right now he is flailing defensively, straining his weak intellect trying to think of something that will save him from the huge shutdown hole that he dug.

Things are going South for him (to my utter delight!) and his support is cracking in many spots.

[unblock]

26. Bypass Obamacare, give money to the people directly, so they can buy... Obamacare?

[Bread and Circuses]

27. And where are we going to purchase this wonderful health insurance? CANADA ?

Do republicans forget that ACA requires insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions?

[geniph]

28. Purchase their own healthcare from whom, precisely, Donald?

Is he thinking that sending everyone $50 a month will allow them to just ... go to the healthcare store and buy healthcare? That'll go a long way to pay for chemo, or the cardiac ICU. JFHC, can we make this demented old POS pay for his own MRI next time?

[WestMichRad]

29. Sure, that'll work.

Make them pay out of pocket and maybe the gubbmint will reimburse them later. Maybe.

What could possibly be wrong with that?

[peggysue2]

30. Hummmm

Is this Agent Orange's concept of a plan made real? Send the rubes a few thousand dollars and let them figure it out.

Brilliant!

We have this and Donnie's suggestion we institute 50-year mortgages. Bankers are high-fiving one another as we speak.

Time to admit it MAGA--your hero is nuts.

[William Seger]

32. So this is Trumpcare? Nine years to come up with a replacement for ACA

... and THIS absolutely astounding display of both ignorance and stupidity is what he came up with? People will somehow, somewhere, buy better insurance and have money left over? Hey, genius, how about just telling people how to do that, so everyone can take advantage of it?

Lie, delusion, or the delusion that people will believe every lie — doesn't much matter.

[progree]

40. The Republicans back in 2017, came up with a plan supported by tRump that came within one vote of passing

the AHCA (American Health Care Act) and the BCRA (Better Care Reconciliation Act), which were remarkably similar to the ACA except vastly underfunded -- such that premiums were expected to be much much higher (and coverage weaker) for most people, leading the CBO to estimate 22 million people would lose insurance as a result. Yet it came just one vote short of passing.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=20767877

[kacekwl]

33. Those money sucking insurance companies

big wig millionaires and billionaires are being paid bigly by you tax cuts dementia Donnie. Leave us alone and get the money back from them.

[patphil]

38. Much better healthcare? For who?

You get some money, but the insurance companies are free to decide how much your healthcare costs.
It's just another scam to move money into the hands of big corporations, but this time we are the intermediates.
Want to bet how little the money the government provides in terms of actual healthcare needs.
Just another scam.

[Justice matters.]

39. Yep, and not only that.

You pay, pay, then pay more, then pay more than you paid more. And when you get sick, tough luck: You get denied of coverage due to the infamous "small prints" between the lines almost nobody reads...

A lifetime scammer.

[Bayard]

42. He knows all about money sucking

Its a life-long pursuit.

Medicare for all is the only way to go.

[bmichaelh]

43. Trump's healthcare opinions are not to be trusted

When it comes to healthcare, why should anyone trust anything that this idiot Trump pushes.

Trump must have missed those critical thinking classes in his education.

Over the weekend, he was pushing a debunked claim that Obama received royalties from Obamacare.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-2674279489/

Earlier in the year, he was pushing a miracle 'medbed' cure for everything.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/28/politics/trump-ai-medbed-conspiracy-theory
This is science fiction; as shown in the movies Prometheus and Elysium.

[GiqueCee]

45. Nothing...

... that comes out of Trump's anus-shaped mouth can ever be trusted. Not EVER.