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TRUMP TAKES AIM AT HEALTHCARE SUBSIDIES The wrangling on Capitol Hill came as Trump on Sunday again pushed to replace subsidies for the ACA's health insurance marketplaces with direct payments to individuals. The subsidies, which helped double ACA enrollment to 24 million since they were put in place in 2021, are at the heart of the shutdown. Republicans have maintained they are open to addressing the issue only after government funding is restored. Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Sunday to blast the subsidies as a "windfall for Health Insurance Companies, and a DISASTER for the American people," while demanding the funds be sent directly to individuals to buy coverage on their own. "I stand ready to work with both Parties to solve this problem once the Government is open," Trump wrote. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally, said in separate TV interviews that Trump's healthcare idea would not be introduced before lawmakers pass a federal funding measure. "We're not proposing it to the Senate right now," Bessent said in an interview with ABC's "This Week" program. "We are not going to negotiate with the Democrats until they reopen the government." Americans shopping for 2026 Obamacare health insurance plans are facing a more than doubling of monthly premiums on average, health experts estimate, with the pandemic-era subsidies due to expire at the end of the year. Republicans rejected a proposal on Friday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, to vote to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year extension of tax credits that lower costs for plans under the ACA, often referred to as Obamacare. Democratic Senator Adam Schiff said on Sunday he believed Trump's healthcare proposal was aimed at gutting the ACA and allowing insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. "So the same insurance companies he's railing against in those tweets, he is saying: 'I'm going to give you more power to cancel people's policies and not cover them if they have a pre-existing condition,'" Schiff said on ABC's "This Week" programme.
