Senate
Republicans embrace Trump’s call – from his Florida golf course – to replace
Obamacare
Amid a
historic government shutdown, some senators on Capitol Hill are working this
weekend on an unpopular bill
Robert
Mackey
Sat 8 Nov
2025 21.31 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/08/senate-republicans-trump-obamacare
US
senators are working through the weekend for the first time since the
government shutdown began more than a month ago, but hopes for a bipartisan
agreement on how to end the standoff, and keep healthcare affordable for
millions of Americans, appeared to recede as Republican senators floated a
proposal toxic to Democrats: scrapping the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as
Obamacare.
The
impact on Americans from the longest shutdown of the federal government in
history deepened on Saturday, as federal workers went unpaid, airlines were
forced to cancel flights and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap)
benefits have been delayed for 42 million Americans.
As
Saturday’s session got under way, Republican senators Lindsey Graham of South
Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana welcomed a
proposal made on social media early Saturday by Donald Trump, from his golf
course in West Palm Beach, for subsidies to be replaced by health savings
accounts.
In a
Truth Social post, Trump suggested that instead of meeting the demand from
Democrats to extend subsidies for health insurance plans purchased through the
ACA marketplace, to pay for sharply increased premiums, Republicans should
return to the project of replacing the Obama-era law, which failed during his
first administration.
“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,” Trump wrote.
Graham
welcomed the proposal, which is similar to a replacement for Obamacare he put
forward in 2017, writing on social media that Trump’s “recommendation that we
stop sending tens of billions of dollars under Obamacare to money-sucking
insurance companies and instead send that money directly to the people so they
can buy better healthcare is simply brilliant”.
“We’re
going to replace this broken system with something that is actually better for
the consumer,” Graham said later.
Cassidy,
who was a co-author of Graham’s similar plan in 2017, also praised Trump’s
proposal on social media, and stood next to a giant blow-up of Trump’s post as
he spoke on the Senate floor.
“I’m
writing the bill right now,” Scott posted in a response to Trump’s suggestion.
“We must stop taxpayer money from going to insurance companies and instead give
it directly to Americans in HSA-style accounts and let them buy the health care
they want. This will increase competition & drive down costs.”
None of
the Republican senators seemed to grapple with the fact that consumers would
still need to buy plans from the same insurance companies, or that Republican
lawmakers need the support of eight Democrats to reopen the government, and the
idea of repealing and replacing Obamacare with savings accounts is unlikely to
earn a single Democratic vote.
Elizabeth
Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, shared an alarmed response to Trump’s
proposal from Larry Levitt, the executive vice-president for health policy at
the Kaiser Family Foundation, who wrote on social media: “You have to read
between the lines here to imagine what President Trump is proposing. But, it
sounds like it could be a plan for health accounts that could be used for
insurance that doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions, which could create a
death spiral in ACA plans that do.”
“In other
words, Donald Trump’s ‘concept of a plan’ for health care is another cynical
attempt to repeal Obamacare,” Warren commented. “It’s the same failed
Republican plan that’s been rejected by voters and Congress. We can lower costs
and open the government TODAY by extending ACA tax credits.”
After his
golf outing, Trump returned to his gilded private club, Mar-a-Lago, and doubled
down on his demand that Republicans stop seeking compromise and try instead to
repeal and replace Obamacare with a version of the plan that failed to garner
enough support in 2017.
“NO MORE
MONEY, HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, TO THE DEMOCRAT SUPPORTED INSURANCE
COMPANIES FOR REALLY BAD OBAMACARE,” Trump posted. “THE MONEY MUST NOW GO
DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE, TAKING THE ‘FAT CAT’ INSURANCE COMPANIES OUT OF THE
CORRUPT SYSTEM OF HEALTHCARE. THE PEOPLE CAN BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER POLICY,
FOR MUCH LESS MONEY,” the president claimed, without explaining how Americans
would be able to purchase cheaper plans from the same insurance companies.
Some
observers suggested that the core of such a plan would remove the ACA’s
requirement that insurance companies cover patients with pre-existing
conditions.
Bernie
Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats, responded
to the criticism of the insurance companies by writing: “Oh, Trump and the
Republicans can’t stand how the big, bad insurance companies are ripping-off
Americans. Really? Are you serious? Then I welcome your support for Medicare
for All. Let’s end the greed of the insurance industry & make healthcare a
human right, not a privilege.”
The
Senate went into recess without finding a solution, but Senate Republican
leaders have signaled an openness to an emerging proposal from a small group of
moderate Democrats to end the shutdown in exchange for a later vote on the
“Obamacare” subsidies.
Senator
Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire, who is leading the talks among
moderates, said Friday evening that Democrats “need another path forward” after
Republicans rejected an offer from Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York
to reopen the government and extend the subsidies for a year.
Schumer
on Saturday persisted in arguing that Republicans should accept a one-year
extension of the subsidies before negotiating the future of the tax credits.
“Doing
nothing is derelict because people will go bankrupt, people will lose
insurance, people will get sicker,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “That’s
what will happen if this Congress fails to act.”
One
bizarre element of the Republican effort to signal that their party is working
overtime to end the shutdown, even as Trump golfs in Florida, was a social
media post on Saturday from Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma senator. Mullin
posted four photographs of himself and two other Republican senators meeting
with Trump in the Oval Office, with the caption: “Working through the weekend
with President Donald J Trump. It’s always an honor to be in the Oval Office– I
never take this opportunity to serve Oklahoma for granted.”
What
Mullin failed to make clear is that the photographs were taken on Friday,
before Trump left for a weekend golf trip at his Florida resort. Mullin himself
had previously posted one of the photographs in a social media video Friday
night.
The
Associated Press contributed reporting
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