After Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Friday suggested reopening the government contingent upon a one-year extension for the Afford Care Act (ACA) tax subsidies — an offer that was shot down by Republicans — President Donald Trump announced a different strategy on social media.
Trump wrote that he wants Senate Republicans to redirect “the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars” sent to health insurance companies for ACA marketplace enrollees directly to those individuals “SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over.”
[Note: In 2016, Trump campaigned on a healthcare plan that involved repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare). In a 2024 debate, Trump famously said he had “concepts of a plan” to replace the ACA. Since then the GOP has failed to propose an alternative to the ACA, although House Speaker Mike Johnson recently said one exists but he isn’t yet ready to share it with the rest of the his House Republican colleagues.]
While MAGA-aligned Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) replied to Trump: “Now that’s a good idea!!!!”, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) objected to the President’s recommendation.
This is, unsurprisingly, nonsensical. Is he suggesting eliminating health insurance and giving people a few thousand dollars instead? And then when they get a cancer diagnosis they just go bankrupt?
He is so unserious. That’s why we are shut down and Americans know it. pic.twitter.com/FuwmD3ub2Z
— Chris Murphy
(@ChrisMurphyCT) November 8, 2025
Murphy wrote: “This is, unsurprisingly, nonsensical. Is he suggesting eliminating health insurance and giving people a few thousand dollars instead? And then when they get a cancer diagnosis they just go bankrupt? He is so unserious. That’s why we are shut down and Americans know it.”
Mark Shepard, Harvard Kennedy School associate professor of public policy, noted that if the enhanced subsidies expire in January, “Of course, the federal government would save money—about $30 billion per year according to the CBO” but also warned of the tradeoff, “lower spending means fewer people insured.”
With fewer people insured, insurance companies will respond by raising premiums or exiting the market, resulting in less competition. Shepard wrote: “That combination—fewer enrollees, higher premiums, less competition—is exactly what we saw during the 2017-18 period when Congress was debating whether to repeal the ACA.”