Trump hints at health care deal to end shutdown, but key hurdles remain
President Donald Trump’s pledge Monday that he is open to a health care compromise that could end the government shutdown has Democrats keen to make a deal - and conservatives eager to blow it up.
“I’d like to see a deal made for great health care,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday, responding to questions about Affordable Care Act subsidies set to expire at the end of the year. He later wrote on his Truth Social platform that no deal would be possible until Democrats agree to end the shutdown, which Democrats say they will not do without an agreement on the subsidies.
Any plan to keep the health insurance subsidies from expiring faces significant hurdles, according to lawmakers, White House staff and outside advisers, some of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Democrats have insisted that Congress must continue the subsidies, which were expanded in 2021 during the coronavirus pandemic and cap the maximum percentage of household income that a person pays for coverage under the ACA, citing estimates that millions of Americans’ insurance premiums will double if the credits expire. GOP leaders have countered that the expanded subsidies are a covid-era relic, have focused on reported fraud within the program, and have called for new income caps to limit who can benefit from the subsidies.
Some antiabortion groups have also insisted that the Hyde Amendment, a provision that prohibits federal funds from paying for abortions, must be attached to any new ACA legislation - a move that has previously scuttled health care deals with Democrats. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a leading antiabortion organization, has warned that it would track lawmakers’ votes for “forced taxpayer funding of abortion through Obamacare.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-hints-health-care-deal-230105104.html0
Meaning he wants the Democrats to give up what leverage they have.