(The Epoch Times)—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.
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