I noted that post earlier but it’s important to understand that this is actually something some Republicans are for and have likely put the idea in his ear:
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.
[…]
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.
This is why Trump wants them to nuke the filibuster. Then he can get all the Republicans to help him destroy health care in America and put their names on it. Huzzah!
This is a recipe for disaster — the disaster we had before Obamacare. If they ditch the regulations that came with the program, vast numbers of sick people will be ineligible for insurance and if they aren’t, premiums will be sky high and you can bet that the Trump checks won’t cover them. The insurance market will be in chaos as people can’t navigate the marketplace (because it’s already confusing) and many will just go without. Hospitals and providers will see even more strain as uncompensated care rises.
We have been here before. We know what this does to people. But the Republicans have never given up on their hatred for anything that helps people, especially health care, even though their own voters are affected.
I don’t know if Americans really need to touch the stove in order to see what a fucking nightmare this administration and GOP is in this second term. It seems obvious to me but what do I know? If they didn’t care about 1.2 million deaths during COVID, even among members of their own families, why would they care about this? But maybe, with all the rest of the country going straight to hell, this might have an impact. We live in hope.
The one thing that worries me is that Trump is now leaning heavily on sending checks to Americans. He’s not only saying he wants to send checks for health care, he’s talking about this as well:
I recall that many people were very excited about Trump when he signed the so-called “stimmie checks” in his first term. People can be very stupid and he knows it.