WASHINGTON — A Senate Republican bill would deposit up to $1,500 directly into Americans’ health care savings accounts is drawing praise from President Trump.
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night, “I like the concept. I don’t want to give the insurance companies any money.”
“They’ve been ripping off the public for years,” the president added. “Obamacare is a scam to make the insurance companies rich. … Billions and billions of dollars is paid directly to insurance companies.”
The bill, which had been on track to receive a vote in the Senate this week, is an attempt to reduce mounting costs for the 24 million Americans on Obamacare.
A provision in the bill hands out $1,000 checks to eligible Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollees between the ages of 18 and 49 — and $1,500 checks to those between the ages of 50 and 64.
To qualify, enrollees’ household income must be 700% of the poverty line for their family size or less.
That means $109,550 for an individual. For a family of four, it could be as high as $225,050.
They must also be enrolled in a bronze level qualified health plan, which make up a third of the Obamacare enrollees, or a catastrophic plan, which make up a fraction of the total enrollees in the program.
Both plans have high deductibles but differ on premiums — with bronze enrollees paying as much as 40% and catastrophic enrollees paying very little.
As much as $10 billion will be appropriated for the payments to health savings accounts. The money can’t fund controversial procedures like abortions or gender-reassignment surgeries or treatments.
Some immigrants who are in the US legally could also qualify.
Obamacare enrollee on silver, gold or platinum plans — the plans with higher premiums and higher levels of coverage — won’t be eligible.
Americans who have employer-provided health insurance and those on Medicare or Medicaid would also not be eligible for the payout.
“I absolutely agree with President Trump that we need to redirect subsidies from insurance companies and give patients the power,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), one of the bill’s cosponsors, told The Post.
“Republicans want real solutions that actually make health care affordable and put money in families’ pockets. I applaud the President for his leadership on this issue,” added Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and introduced the legislation with Senate Finance Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
The bill is headed for a procedural vote Thursday, along with an $83 billion measure put forward by Senate Democrats to extend all Obamacare subsidies for three years.
The Democrats were allowed the vote as part of a deal that ended the federal government shutdown last month.
The move comes as Trump is seeking to recalibrate his economic messaging to voters before the 2026 midterms, promising Americans up to $2,000 in tariff rebate checks, $1,000 Trump savings accounts for kids, and more.
US consumers are still grappling with the effects of as much as 20% cumulative inflation from former President Joe Biden’s term. The price of goods rose another 3% when compared to a year ago, per the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The Trump White House has rebuffed accusations that tariffs are exacerbating the higher prices, touting businesses investing at unprecedented levels in US domestic industries and trade deals that have reduced import-export disparities with other countries.
On Tuesday, the president told supporters at an event in a northeastern Pennsylvania casino that he had “no higher priority than making America affordable again.”
“If we didn’t have tariffs, you would have no steel,” he told the crowd. “We wouldn’t have one steel mill anywhere in the United States, and that would be really bad for national security.”
“When energy comes down, your other prices come down,” he also said.
“We’re also putting thousands of dollars in the pockets of hard-working Pennsylvanians with the largest tax cuts in American history: That’s no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security for our great seniors,” he added. “And all of that kicks in on Jan. 1.”
“The current system is not working to deliver health care at reasonable prices for everyday Americans. Democrats’ push to maintain these high prices by giving more money to insurance companies is not a real solution for President Trump,” added White House spokesman Kush Desai in a statement.
“The President has instead focused on lowering prescription drug costs by hammering out deals with pharmaceutical companies, as well as taking on waste, fraud and abuse in the system to deliver results for patients, and will continue to deliver policy solutions that lower costs in the healthcare market for the American people.”
