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 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.
Lawmakers remained at odds over how to reopen the government. Democrats want a funding bill to include healthcare subsidies that are due to expire for 24 million Americans at year’s end, but Trump’s fellow Republicans say Congress must first pass a funding bill without strings attached and allow the government to reopen before tackling other issues.
