Oz: Trump administration weighing ACA subsidies extension

The Hill ^ | November 16, 2025 | Max Rego

[buckalfa]

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said Sunday the Trump administration is holding “discussions” on extending subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

“There are discussions around extending the subsidies, if we deal with the fraud, waste and abuse that, right now, is paralyzing the system,” Oz told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: aca; extension; oz; subsidies

[buckalfa]

Insanity is continuing the status quo when the status quo is not working or there are better ways to explore . Yet the political reality is that subsidies become viewed as entitlements and entitlements have never been successfully repealed. Bottom line is the so called Schumer Shutdown succeeded in defining healthcare and how to pay for it as the issue for the 2026 midterms.

The article states the Trump Administration will try to extract cuts in parts of the program they identify as waste and fraud in exchange for extending the subsidies.

3 D chess by Trump or realization that his agenda is dead in the water if Republicans lose either house of Congress in the approaching midterms.

[Carry_Okie]

He doesn’t want Republicans to take the heat they’re going to get.

[Alberta's Child]

Trump's social media rant about giving the ACA subsidies to individuals instead of the insurance companies was the turning point in ending the government shutdown.

The GOP should get smart about this and pursue this angle as a short-term "fix" for health insurance in 2026.

[ealgeone]

The only fix the deep state will accept is more taxpayer money.

[montag813]

So they are actually going to give Schumer the vote Thune promised? Weak sauce.

[MinorityRepublican]

He doesn’t want Republicans to take the heat they’re going to get.

Sometimes the only thing you can do is to "punt".

[Tipllub]

ObamaCare has been an unmitigated disaster, jacking up the prices of health insurance into the stratosphere. This has been masked through passing on the cost to employers, or handing out subsidies.

The truth is most people love government gimees, which is why they get so up in arms at the threat of it being taken away.

People also want to pay the cheapest possible price for everything, whatever braying about “Buy American!” to the contrary. Or to bring jobs back to the US. That’s why tariffs are also doomed to fail.

The enemy to reform isn’t politicians, but the Sheeple they have to answer to.

[frank ballenger]

Thanks for modern AI systems it will be possible to find how many votes are won or lost based on surrendering or not surrendering to the Obamacare shills.

If not a vote getter than dump the trashy health con.

[ProgressingAmerica]

Barack Obama has won.

We will never be rid of Obamacare.

Time to learn to become an expert at surrendering, since surrender is the only valid play.

[UnwashedPeasant]

If Republicans are giving up on reform, then we should all get in on the scams.

[Keyser Soze 84]

We have to pay the bills before we can cut spending, as the econimy booms, but inflation and interest rates fall.
Here is my idea for a tax code to pay the bills:
1) replace the corporate income tax & tax on business payrolls by a 15% VAT as new Social Security tax that works as a tariff to tax imports but not exports.
2) 15% individual side payroll tax to pay for Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare, phased down to 12.5% at $100,000, down to 10% at $500,000, down to 7.5% at $1 million income, down to 2.5% at $10 million.
3) no income tax on first $100,000 income and NO DEDUCTIONS. 5% income tax bracket at $100,000, 10% income tax bracket at $500,000, 15% tax bracket at $1 milliom, 20% tax bracket at $5 million, 25% tax bracket at $10 million, 30% tax bracket ( top of the Laffer Curve, point of diminishing returns on tax rates).
4) tax capital gains & dividends as regular income. Long term capital gains, index for inflation, no payroll tax.
So total effective rates, (unlike Reagan’s 15% plus payroll tax, then 28% with no payroll tax.....but small businessmen paid double payroll tax, ie 31% rate with fewer deductions)
Total effective rates under my tax reform idea would be very mildly progressive and unsteep 15%, 17.5%,20%,22.5%,25%,27.5%,30%. Fairer, flatter. Good for the supply side and demand side. Then we have the higher ground to discuss how to replace Obamacare and balance the budget, but not on the backs of the poor and middle class.

[Keyser Soze 84]

Obamacare hit my employer with a $500,000 new tax. The press covered up how destructive across the board Obamacare was and was intended to be. Yesterday, I talked to a medical devices salesperson about the Obama hidden taxes. My employer first froze our pensions, froze hiring, froze salaries and wages, froze overtime and bonuses, put everybody in HSA insurance plan with deductible going from $50O to $3,000, but paid half over the coming year. We got no raises until Trump in 2017....then we got real raises every year except Covid. ....There needs to be an Obamacare tax to pay for Obamacare. People need to stop thinking deficits and debt is free

[Keyser Soze 84]

2) phased down to 5% at $5 million income.

[pgyanke]

How about this…

- Open up the marketplace across state lines and give people a market solution.

- provide assistance to those who need it.

- Leave the rest of us alone.

[9YearLurker]

That’s the old RINO excuse for everything—including having promised to repeal the ACA right up until the controlled the presidency and both chambers of Congress in 2017.

Then, suddenly, they weren’t going to replace it, but make it better.