Posted on 11/16/2025 9:16:11 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said that the Trump administration may look at multiple options for extending health care subsidies that are due to expire soon.
A key issue that kept the government shut down for more than a month was the COVID-19 pandemic-era health care subsidies that will expire at the end of the year. Democrats in Congress had wanted to add an extension to a stopgap bill to fund the government, but did not succeed in that effort.
“The president’s willing to look at all options,” Oz said on Sunday during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.” “But we have some major flaws with the way these COVID-era subsidies were added. And just so everyone’s on the same page in this issue, our goal is to get people covered.”
The subsidies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic and extended under the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.
“There are discussions around extending subsidies if we deal with the fraud, waste, and abuse that right now is paralyzing the system,” Oz told CNN. “There are ways of using our money wisely by putting it in the pockets of Americans.”
Oz, a former television personality and talk show host known as Dr. Oz, appeared to be referring to a social media post and comments made by President Donald Trump last week in which Trump suggested sending direct payments to Americans to offset the cost of health insurance.
Speaking to Fox News last week, Trump said that he would call the plan “Trumpcare” as an alternative to Obamacare, a term that is commonly used to describe the ACA. The money, he said, could be distributed to people’s bank accounts to be used to purchase 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 Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “They’re actually able to go out and negotiate their own insurance.”
Earlier this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that extending the ACA subsidies due to expire soon would cost roughly $35 billion per year. But allowing them to expire would lead to around 4 million more people not having health insurance by 2034, the CBO added.
“I promise you the president is laser focused on this,” Oz said of the health care talks. “It’s the main thing I talk with him about. Congress as well is all over this. We have got to find solutions that don’t just work at the end of this year but work for years to come.”
On Nov. 12, Trump signed a government funding bill that ended a record 43-day shutdown. The signing ceremony came just hours after the House passed the Senate measure on a mostly party-line vote of 222–209.
If Congress doesn’t take any other action on health care costs this year, the enhanced premium tax credits that have helped many Americans pay for Obamacare health insurance plans for four years will disappear. On average, that will more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for premiums, according to an analysis by health care research nonprofit KFF.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
High income people are getting these subsidies. That’s part of the problem.
Choice between continuing with billion dollar fraud allowed and not cut out by DOGE and looking Scrooge like to the voters for kicking helpless people off who can’t afford an alternative to Obamacare.
Difficult choice.
But we have to get the story out that the illegals DO get free healthcare by waiting to go to emergency care and then the hospitals can bill the taxpayers for the illegals’ care.
Dems brag “See? We can read you the federal law right here——no illegals get medicare money paid to them.”
Go back to user-pay, watch how much prices come down.
With AI coming and most livable wages jobs going to AI as the biggest costs to business is the human factor so the only healthcare the average Citizens will be able to afford will be Government provided healthcare as many will become Wards of the State. The goal of AI is to rid as many employees from Business as possible and AI will not create many jobs as Computers never need rest and only a small staff in case they break... I predict in 5 years the Workforce will be half as many compared to now.
WHEN WE WERE KIDS-—WE HAD A “FAMILY DOCTOR”.
GOT TREATED FOR BAD COLDS-—APPENDICITIS-—BROKEN ARM-—AND SUCH. IF ANYTHING WAS MORE SPECIALIZED-—THAT FAMILY DOC REFERRED US TO A “SPECIALIST”.
FAMILY PAID THE BILL. ITEMS LIKE SURGERY==+BLUE CROSS/BLUE SHIELD, ETC.
TODAY-—THERE IS A LONG DAISY CHAIN OF “REFERRALS” AND EACH ONE COST MORE MONEY THAN THE ONE PRIOR.
YOUR “HEALTH CARE PROVIDER” MUST REFER YOU TO THIS ONE-—THEN THAT ONE PASSES YOU ON-—ETC, ETC, WHILE YOU ARE MORE & MORE FRUSTRATED.
EVERY SINGLE STRUCTURE IS ADVERTISING UNTIL THEY HAVE SPENT MILLIONS OF DOLLARS-— VYING FOR YOUR DOLLARS. THEY ARE NOT PROVIDING YOU WITH MEDICAL CARE-—BUT GETTING YOU INSTALLED ONTO THE “MEDICAL MERRY GO ROUND”.
“OBAMACARE” IS A TRAVESTY.
NEED TO START OVER.
“OBAMACARE” IS A TRAVESTY...Need to start over.”
Since the beginning I’ve thought that was their plan. Shove Obamacare on us. Calling it “Healthcare” when it is really just an insurance scam, and knowing that it will fail.
Then they can say “It failed because of the greedy insurance companies and medical providers. They need to be gotten rid of and replaced with free medical care provided by the government.”
For that to work you have to get rid of “government-pay” first.
I wouldn’t call a couple earning $84,600/year “rich”. (The cutoff income level for a subsidy under the “ACA”).
And that is why they raised the income limits to 400% of the federal poverty level during covid. Never let a good crisis go to waste.
End game is rationed health care for all.
Maybe if we put an Ice Officer in every hospital waiting room. Hmmmmm?
In the old days you’d be right.
But thanks to the EMRs in GWB’s Porkulus, the independent doc has gone the way of the dodo.
User pay won’t immediately change the fact that health systems, our defacto NHS, will still control the bulk of HCPs and health systems have enormous overhead.
If people want health care costs to come down we have to make it attractive for docs to hang up their own shingle again.
We have to graduate more docs, especially in geriatric care.
We have to really do malpractice reform.
It’s not just about who pays.
No subsidies period. Government needs to stay out of healthcare and any and all welfare programs.
“Maybe if we put an Ice Officer in every hospital waiting room.”
That’s genius! No kidding.
Literally any patient can pay with cash.
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