President Trump has put forth his ideas on how to fix the broken ObamaCare healthcare system. The Democrats aren’t interested in solutions to ObamaCare for two reasons; ObamaCare is their baby, passed without a single Republican vote in 2010, so they don’t want to admit they made any mistakes. Second, their goal is full government control of healthcare – socialized medicine – and ObamaCare comes closest to that goal of any U.S healthcare system.

But ObamaCare is an absolute failure, requiring additional government subsidies to keep it affordable regardless of President Obama’s promises it would lower the cost of healthcare. But rather than fix the problems, Democrats only want to throw more government money, (that’s your money and mine) as a temporary solution.

This means Republicans are fighting an uphill battle to improve the system since they can’t count on the support of Democrats. But Trump is putting forth his ideas for solutions so Democrats can’t say he doesn’t have any. The American people can decide who is better to trust with their healthcare.

Natalie Andrews and Sabrina Siddiqui, writing for The Wall Street Journal, say, “The White House released a healthcare framework on Thursday, called “The Great Healthcare Plan,” which seeks to lower prescription drug prices, increase price transparency and redirect federal subsidies from insurers to consumers. Passing the proposal into law is expected to be a tall order for a gridlocked Washington that has struggled for months to agree on a healthcare compromise aimed at easing higher premiums and other costs for millions of Americans. 

The plan brings together ideas that have been pitched by several lawmakers and asks Congress to codify executive actions designed to bring U.S. drug prices in line with the lowest level paid by other rich countries. The plan wouldn’t replace the Affordable Care Act, which many Republicans campaigned on repealing. White House officials said the measures would give more power to consumers if all the proposals were passed.

The framework is light on details and doesn’t endorse specific bills or give a timeline for when Trump wants it passed. But it does seek to codify many of the actions Trump has taken on addressing healthcare costs. The proposal doesn’t endorse extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which expired in December. Rather than paying insurers through the subsidies, Trump’s plan would instead deposit those funds directly into a savings account, similar to a Health Savings Account, and implement a cost-sharing reduction program.

“Instead of putting the needs of big corporations and special interests first, our plan finally puts you first and puts more money in your pocket,” Trump said in a video posted on the White House’s social-media accounts. “The big insurance companies lose and the people of our country win.” The plan calls for price transparency, ​​urging “any healthcare provider or insurer who accepts Medicare or Medicaid to prominently post their pricing and fees.” Price transparency bills in Congress have support from Republicans and Democrats.

Trump’s plan seeks to “end kickbacks from pharmacy-benefit managers to the large brokerage middlemen” to lower costs. Lawmakers from both parties have criticized pharmacy-benefit managers, which usually play a key role in getting prescriptions filled and reimbursed, for what the administration says is anticompetitive tactics that keep drug prices artificially high.

Some Republicans have openly called for more engagement from Trump, who has largely stayed out of the debate and received conflicting advice from aides on how to approach the subsidies. The president and his party have found themselves caught between fears that voters will punish Republicans if healthcare costs skyrocket in a midterm year defined by affordability—and concerns that backing any measure tied to the Obamacare healthcare law could spark backlash from a conservative base that has long opposed it.

The American people need to understand that Democrats are moving to take away your private insurance policy and force everyone onto a government-controlled healthcare system. That means socialized medicine and that always leads to restricted access to care, rationing of care, and denial of expensive treatments to those not considered worthy of the expense by the government. No one should be forced to accept such a system.

For months we’ve been hearing about the coming ObamaCare crisis when temporary government-enhanced subsidies expire on December 31^st. Democrats shut down the government for a record 42 days mostly because of this issue. They demanded extension of the subsidies for at least three more years lest millions of Americans lose their healthcare coverage. In typical melodramatic fashion, some Democrats claimed “people will die” if the subsidies aren’t extended.

But the crisis never happened. The Wall Street Journal editorial board reported last week, “ObamaCare’s annual open enrollment ended Thursday, and what do you know? The media-fueled panic over the expiration of the pandemic-era enhanced subsidies turned out to be a false alarm.”

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported last week that 22.8 million Americans have signed up for ObamaCare plans as of January 3. That’s down from 24.2 million last year. People could still sign up for plans on the federal exchange through Thursday, and some states have extended their open enrollment through the end of the month.

But even if there are few new sign-ups, enrollment is still running higher than it was in 2024—when the sweetened subsidies were available. The 1.4 million decline in sign-ups compared to 2025 enrollment is also less than was predicted. The left-leaning Urban Institute projected that ObamaCare’s subsidized enrollment would drop by 7.3 million.

The Congressional Budget Office’s ObamaCare baseline in 2024 assumed 18.9 million people would enroll in plans this year if the enhanced subsidies vanished. The budget gnomes have repeatedly underestimated ObamaCare enrollment and spending; they need to rework their models. Looks like everybody got it wrong.

 Like Chicken Little, who said the sky is falling, Democrats wanted us to believe that apart from the extension of the subsidies, nobody could afford to pay the ObamaCare premiums. This is particularly rich coming from the same people who promised us ObamaCare would save every American family at least $2500 per year. Remember President Obama’s promises? He also promised “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” That was another lie.

One reason forecasts may have missed the mark is that they overlook that most enrollees still won’t have to pay all that much for their plans. The Paragon Health Institute estimates that an average enrollee making 150% of the poverty line ($23,475 for an individual) will be expected to pay only $14 a week.

An enrollee earning 250% of the poverty line ($39,125) would have to pay more, but still only $52 a week. Keep in mind that the income thresholds that determine subsidy amounts—which decline as incomes increase—don’t include government benefits like food stamps, welfare and disability payments and the child tax credit.

The Administration says sign-ups declined this year mainly because of measures it took to crack down on fraud. Paragon’s Brian Blase calculates that about 12 million ObamaCare enrollees in 2024 had no medical claims, suggesting they may have been enrolled in plans without their knowledge. Fraud may also explain why enrollment hasn’t fallen more.

The WSJ editors say, “The Democratic ObamaCare scare campaign has turned out to be a false and partisan alarm. Republicans who still fall for it now that the reality is clear deserve to be in the minority.”

The truth is ObamaCare is a train wreck that will only get worse the more politicians prop it up with more money. It has never lived up to the hype Democrats pushed when they passed it in 2010 under President Obama. It’s time to fix the problem with new ideas, not just more money.

There is no doubt that ObamaCare has lived up to the prediction it would be a “train wreck.” This was the assessment of Democratic Senator Max Baucus (D- Montana), then Chairman of Senate Finance Committee, speaking to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebellius on 4/17/13. But Democrats didn’t listen to his warning and implemented the Affordable Care Act in 2014.

Democrats are determined to throw good money after bad by extending temporary government subsidies another three years and eventually making them permanent. Rather than fix the problem they made, they want to use the issue as a cudgel to force Republicans into prolonging the misery lest they be accused of taking away people’s healthcare.

The real solution to a bad policy is to make a good policy. Republicans have been reluctant to take on this task in the wake of their failure during the first Trump administration thanks to rogue Republican Senator John McCain. But the adults in the room have to take leadership at some point and improve or discard this failed healthcare system.

Fortunately, there is some reason for optimism as Republican leadership is now showing interest in improving ObamaCare. This won’t be pretty as Republicans face complete opposition from any Democrats and even a few Republicans. Expect this debate to continue throughout the coming year.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board says, “The GOP bill would make it easier for small businesses to escape the ObamaCare regulatory morass. The bill would expand so-called association health plans that let small employers unite to sponsor group health plans. These plans would reduce premiums by expanding risk pools and give small employers more leverage with insurers. 

The plans wouldn’t have to adhere to many costly ObamaCare rules, though they still couldn’t charge more for workers with pre-existing health conditions. Worker premiums for association plans would likely be lower than for ObamaCare plans. Workers might also see an increase in take-home pay if their employer’s insurance costs fall.”

The Republican bill also seeks to reduce ObamaCare premiums by fixing a distortion caused by the law’s convoluted design. ObamaCare requires insurers to reduce deductibles and co-pays for low-income enrollees in benchmark silver plans. No surprise, insurers have raised premiums for these silver plans to offset the cost of these “cost-sharing” reductions.

Because ObamaCare subsidies are pegged to premiums for silver plans, the cost-sharing mandate has resulted in larger subsidies for all plans. The GOP bill would appropriate funds to insurers to pay for ObamaCare’s required cost-sharing reductions. This would reduce premiums for silver plans and, in turn, taxpayer spending on subsidies. A better solution would be to eliminate the cost-sharing mandate, which can make ObamaCare plans more attractive than employer plans for lower-income enrollees.

The Census Bureau’s annual survey of insurance coverage this year showed that the share of Americans with any coverage hasn’t changed since 2019 despite the larger ObamaCare subsidies. Enrollment in employer plans has declined but government and ObamaCare coverage has increased. This trend is exactly what Democrats want as they seek to eventually have all Americans on government-controlled health insurance. This is socialized medicine by another name.

Some of the increase in ObamaCare enrollment owes to fraud, as the Paragon Health Institute has documented and the Government Accountability Office recently corroborated. Millions of people have under-reported their incomes to qualify for bigger subsidies, while brokers enroll people in plans without their knowledge to earn bigger commissions.

The GOP may not succeed anytime soon in reversing the damage of ObamaCare, but it is important they show the American people which party is really looking out for what’s best for their healthcare.