Copyright NJ.com
Dr. Mehmet Oz on Monday declined to offer any insights into President Donald Trump’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with a new health insurance system. Oz, administrator for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo that he spent this past weekend working with the White House on a new health care plan for the 24 million people who receive coverage through the ACA. However, Oz did not provide any specifics on what the Republican plan would look like. “I spent a good part of the weekend with the White House working on exactly the answer to that question,” Oz told Bartiromo. "We have lots of great ideas, but I don’t want to show our cards. As the president often says, ‘Why would I telegraph what we are going to do?’ ” Oz added that he was “over the moon” after the Senate advanced a compromise bill that would end the government shutdown without extending ACA tax credits that are due to expire on Dec. 31. Eight members of the Democratic caucus joined Republicans in a 60-40 vote Sunday night to approve a legislative package that would fund the federal government through January. The deal included a commitment that the Senate would hold a mid-December vote on extending the ACA tax credits. The subsidies have been central to Democrats’ demands since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. “It’s the right thing for the American people,” Oz told Bartiromo. “You should not be negotiating important issues, in this case, the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid under an extortionary situation where you’re holding the government hostage.” Trump and his allies have railed against the ACA for more than a decade while calling for it to be repealed. Last week, the president again slammed Obamacare as the “worst Healthcare anywhere in the world” and said that the funding for ACA subsidies should be sent directly to consumers. “I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Health insurance premiums are expected to skyrocket in 2026 once the ACA subsidies expire. Roughly 22 million enrollees out of the 24 million in the marketplace currently receive enhanced tax credits.
