Senate Republicans embrace Trump’s call – from his Florida golf course – to replace Obamacare | US federal government shutdown 2025

U.S. senators are working over 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 health care affordable for millions of Americans appear to be fading as Republican senators floated a toxic proposal for Democrats: scrapping the Affordable Care Act (ACA), known as Obamacare.

The impact on Americans of the longest federal government shutdown in history deepened Saturday, as federal workers went unpaid, airlines were forced to cancel flights and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits were delayed for 42 million Americans.

As Saturday’s session began, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Rick Scott of Florida and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana welcomed a proposal made Saturday morning on social media by Donald Trump, from his West Palm Beach golf course, to replace the subsidies with health savings accounts.

In an article for Truth Social, Trump suggested that instead of responding to Democrats’ demand to expand subsidies to health insurance plans purchased on the ACA marketplace to pay for sharply increased premiums, Republicans should return to the proposed replacement of the Obama-era law, which failed under his first administration.

“I recommend to Senate Republicans that the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being sent to money-sucking insurance companies to save the poor health care provided by ObamaCare BE SENT DIRECTLY TO PEOPLE SO THEY CAN BUY THEIR OWN HEALTH CARE, MUCH BETTER,” Trump wrote.

Graham praised the proposal, which amounts to a replacement for the Obamacare he proposed 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 people so they can buy better health care is nothing short of brilliant.”

“We’re going to replace this broken system with something that’s 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 blowup of Trump’s message as he spoke on the Senate floor.

“I’m writing the bill right now,” Scott posted in response to Trump’s suggestion. “We need to stop taxpayer dollars from going to insurance companies and instead give them directly to Americans in HSA-style accounts and let them buy the health care they want. This will increase competition and lower costs.”

None of the Republican senators seem to care that consumers would still have 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 garner a single Democratic vote.

Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, shared an alarmed response to Trump’s proposal from Larry Levitt, 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 appears it could be a health accounts plan that could be used for insurance that doesn’t cover pre-existing conditions, which could create a death spiral in ACA plans who do it.”

“In other words, Donald Trump’s health care ‘concept plan’ is yet another cynical attempt to repeal Obamacare,” Warren commented. “It’s the same failed Republican plan that was rejected by voters and Congress. We can cut costs and open government TODAY by extending the ACA tax credits.”

After his round of golf, Trump returned to his gilded private club, Mar-a-Lago, and redoubled his demands that Republicans stop seeking compromise and instead try to repeal and replace Obamacare with a version of the plan that failed to garner enough support in 2017.

“MORE MONEY, HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, FOR INSURANCE COMPANIES SUPPORTED BY DEMOCRATS FOR THE REALLY BAD OBAMACARE,” Trump said. “THE MONEY NOW MUST GO DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE, GETTING THE ‘FAT CAT’ INSURANCE COMPANIES OUT OF THE CORRUPT HEALTH SYSTEM. PEOPLE CAN BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER POLICY, FOR MUCH LESS MONEY,” the president asserted, without explaining how Americans could buy cheaper plans from the same insurance companies.

Some observers have suggested that the bulk of such a plan would remove the ACA’s requirement that insurance companies cover patients with preexisting conditions.

Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who is caucusing with Democrats, responded to criticism of insurance companies by writing: “Oh, Trump and the Republicans can’t stand the way big, bad insurance companies are ripping off Americans. Really? Are you serious? So I welcome your support for Medicare for All. Let’s end the greed of the insurance industry and make health care a human right, not a privilege.”

The Senate went into recess without finding a solution, but Senate Republican leaders signaled 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.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, who is leading the moderates’ negotiations, said Friday night 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 another year.

Schumer continued Saturday to assert that Republicans should agree to a one-year extension of the subsidies before negotiating the future of tax credits.

“Doing nothing is wrong because people will go bankrupt, lose their insurance and get sicker,” Schumer said in a speech. “This is what will happen if this Congress does not act.”

A bizarre element of the Republican effort to signal that their party is working overtime to end the shutdown, even as Trump plays golf in Florida, was a social media post Saturday from Markwayne Mullin, an Oklahoma senator. Mullin posted four photos of himself and two other Republican senators meeting with Trump in the Oval Office, with the caption: “Working all 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 didn’t specify is that the photos were taken Friday, before Trump left for a golf weekend at his Florida resort. Mullin himself had already posted one of the photographs in a video on social media on Friday evening.

The Associated Press contributed to this report