Trump still hasn’t endorsed a plan to avoid impending Obamacare hikes for millions

President Donald Trump has not endorsed a plan to prevent Obamacare rates from spiking in three weeks, leaving Republicans without a clear path ahead of a key vote.

On Thursday the Senate is expected to vote down the only GOP plan on the table, an effort by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). Trump hasn’t waded into the fray, instead talking broadly about his preferences without publicly supporting a specific plan. Absent a deal, Obamacare subsidies will spike for millions of Americans in less than a month.

White House policy teams are “looking at a lot of different avenues” and doing their own “analysis,” said one White House official, granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. There is no single White House-preferred plan emanating from Capitol Hill, where various options are circulating, and the White House is in touch with many offices.

“We're doing our own analysis right now, and I think we need to get that figured out before we come out publicly,” the White House official said.

That has left Republicans on Capitol Hill without detailed direction from Trump and a very small legislative window to act, creating a chaotic scramble to coalesce around a solution. It also poses a politically potent problem for Republicans in the runup to midterms, where pocketbook issues are already top of mind.

Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others in the administration have promised in recent days that 2026 will see the economy rocket into the stratosphere. But without action to head off expiring Obamacare subsidies, many will ring in the new year with much higher health insurance costs.

Asked if he wants Republicans to vote for Cassidy and Crapo’s plan, Trump has instead offered his overarching support for the idea of sending money directly to Americans.

“I love the idea of money going directly to the people, not to the insurance companies, going directly to the people. It can be in the health savings account, it can be a number of different ways,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday night. “And the people go out and buy their own insurance which can be really much better health insurance, health care.”

The Cassidy-Crapo plan mirrors Trump’s policy desires — giving money to people. It would not extend the “enhanced” subsidies set to expire at year’s end. Rather, it would direct Americans to a high-deductible Obamacare plan and then funnel some of the funds from subsidies into health savings accounts for use on out-of-pocket health care costs.

Younger people who make below a certain income would get $1,000 towards health savings accounts, while older adults would get $1,500. Asked if that’s enough to cover costs, Trump didn’t address the plan details and raised doubts about its ability to pass, which he blamed on Democrats.

“What we’re doing is we want all of the billions and billions of dollars that went to insurance companies to go directly to the people and they can buy their own health care. And people love it. I don’t know if the Democrats are going to approve it because they want the insurance companies to make money,” Trump said.

“But, we’re going to see. The Republicans I can tell you want the money to go to the people.”

In an interview with POLITICO’s Dasha Burns for a special episode of The Conversation that aired on Tuesday, Trump said he will “have to see” if he directs Congress to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies while he works out another deal.

“I don’t know. I’m gonna have to see. I’d like to get better health care. I’d like to have people…buy their own health care, get much better health care, and… what I want to do, for example, I want to give the money to the people, not to the insurance companies,” the president said.

Some Republicans have accepted that the White House doesn’t plan to get involved with the health care negotiations on the Hill– at least not yet.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), in response to questions about whether Trump should get behind Cassidy-Crapo, replied “sure, but I don’t think the White House is going to do that nor do I think they’re prepared to do that.”

Congress remains divided over how to address the expiring subsidies, with some members warning that their districts rely on Obamacare and sharp health care costs will snowball feelings of unease about the prices of regular goods like food and energy. Others, who strongly oppose Obamacare, don’t want to keep subsidizing the program.

White House involvement would only further those divisions, said Joel White, a Republican strategist and president of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage.

Trump has laid out the goal of directing subsidy funds to people to use as they please, “a populist message that would excite our base,” White said, adding that he has left internal caucus dynamics to leadership.

“I think Trump got it right. I think, you know, he made this very, very simple and understandable and relatable, and at a policy level, it's a major dynamic change. So I think they're in a really good spot right now,” White said. “I think they need to coalesce around this concept, get aligned on that bill and push it forward,” he said.

“I am more of the belief that these efforts will more likely than not fail, and we'll be in Q1 trying to figure out, you know, talking about the same things, how do we drive down health costs,” White added.

The options to pass something after Thursday will grow narrower, but include House votes that are expected next week and ongoing bipartisan conversations in the Senate.

“If there is an interest in solving it — I don’t rule it out — obviously we don’t have a lot of time to do this, but I think there are ways in which you could, where there's a will,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said on Wednesday.

Nina Schaefer, a senior research fellow on health care at the conservative Heritage Foundation, also played down the urgency of the Thursday vote.

The vote — which will also include a Democrat proposal to extend the subsidies outright, was agreed upon by Thune and Democrats in a deal to reopen the government, after the shutdown itself was leveraged by Democrats to bring attention to the expiring subsidies.

“I think it's brought attention to the issue, but I don't think that people are going to abandon it just because of whatever happens in the next two weeks,” Schaefer said.

“It really is kind of the starting point, and I think that the expiring subsidies have brought the health care question back to the forefront, and that the status quo really isn't working for anyone,” she said.

While Republicans figure out their preferred vehicle for a health care plan, they are also laying the blame on Democrats for the looming expiring subsidies.

“Democrats wrote Obamacare with subsidies that were designed to expire and passed it without a single Republican vote. They are now trying to shift blame for the failures of their own law,” said Kiersten Pels, Republican National Committee national press secretary.

“President Trump and Republicans are focused on lowering costs and delivering better healthcare for hardworking Americans — from driving down drug prices to bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the U.S., driving billions in new investments,” she said.

Trump, though, has suggested he would bring in Democrats on health care, even telling reporters last month that he has “had personal talks with some Democrats” about his idea to give cash directly to consumers to pay for their health care coverage. POLITICO reached out to two dozen House and Senate offices at the time andnone would acknowledge they are in contact with the White House on health care.