Trump Says He Has Talked With Democrats About New Health Care Payment Plan

‘Insurance companies are making a fortune,’ the president said.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he departs for Florida from Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Oct. 31, 2025. Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

President Donald Trump on Nov. 16 said he has spoken with congressional Democrats about a possible direct health care payment plan as insurance subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year.

Democrats had sought to push for an extension to the health care subsidies in a possible package to end the government shutdown that started on Oct. 1 and ended on Nov. 12. The funding package passed by Congress and signed by Trump, however, didn’t include anything on the subsidies, which went into effect during the COVID-19 pandemic and were later extended under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

“I’ve had personal talks with some Democrats,” Trump told reporters on the evening of Nov. 16 at the Palm Beach International Airport in Florida before he returned to Washington.

While Trump did not name those he spoke to, he said that they talked “about paying large amounts of dollars back to the people,” referring to a plan that he floated during an interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham that aired on Nov. 10.

His idea to pay Americans for health care insurance was “picked up” by some of his supporters as well as Democrats, he told reporters on Nov. 16.

“People love it,” he said. “The insurance companies are making a fortune. Their stock is up over 1,000 percent over a short period of time. They are taking in hundreds of billions of dollars, and they’re not really putting it back, certainly not like they should.”

Health care and insurance reform have been among the most difficult issues to resolve in Congress. Republicans on multiple occasions have sought to scrap the Affordable Care Act (ACA), otherwise known as Obamacare, which was passed in 2010.

This year, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) have proposed overhauling the ACA law to create individual accounts that would direct the money to people rather than insurance companies. Trump told Ingraham during the interview that he supports the idea.

When asked about the concept, Trump responded by saying that he wants “the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance.”

“The insurance will be better. It’ll cost less. Everybody’s going to be happy. They’re going to feel like entrepreneurs,” he told Ingraham, adding that the plan could be called “Trumpcare.” The president also criticized Obamacare by saying that health care premiums have increased dramatically in recent years.

Democrats wanted to extend an enhanced tax credit expiring at the end of the year that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through ACA marketplaces. They refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. Republicans said it was a separate policy fight to be held at another time.

Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in a Nov. 16 interview that the White House has held discussions about extending the subsidies or replacing them.

“The president’s willing to look at all options,” Oz told CNN’s “State of the Union,“ adding that there are major flaws with the subsidies. He cited ”widespread fraud” in the system as one of the things that needs to be changed in a potential deal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.