Trump made an appearance at a Turning Point USA event in Phoenix this weekend, and told the audience this:
TRUMP: We will pass the great healthcare plan. We call it the great healthcare plan to stop all payments to big insurance companies and give the money. What we want to do is this. We want the insurance companies to be cut out. We want our government not to pay trillions of dollars to insurance companies, but to pay that same amount of money directly to the people, directly. And you go out and buy your own healthcare.
As Susie discussed here when the White House released the outline for their “plan,” which proposed to send money directly to Americans for health savings accounts as a substitute for ACA tax credits:
How stupid does he think we are? And how stupid is he that after all these years, he still doesn’t understand what a risk pool is, or that buying insurance in bulk is what keeps costs down? After all, how would the celebrity “businessman” know? All his life, he’s just hires other people to make him look competent.
This is exactly the kind of idea you would expect some Republican hack to come up with, because it doesn’t actually do anything for people. It’s just for show.
KFF reported this on the plan back in January: The ‘Great Healthcare Plan’ Leaves Open Questions for People with Pre-existing Conditions:
In a video message and one-page fact sheet, President Trump announced a health care framework aimed at lowering costs and “holding big insurance companies accountable.”
Some provisions look very similar to ones that are already in the Affordable Care Act (ACA). For example, the ACA as implemented, includes public data on claims denials and insurer overhead, and “plain-English” insurance coverage summaries. Additionally, the first Trump administration used ACA authority to require hospitals and insurers to reveal prices.
Additionally, the Obama administration had made payments to insurers for cost-sharing reductions, but in Trump’s first administration, those payments were halted. The “Great Healthcare Plan” appears to be a 180, proposing to reinstate the payments to insurers. (Another post explains how this could leave many ACA enrollees paying more, not less.)
Other provisions of the president’s health care framework, though, sound like a radical departure from the Affordable Care Act. It’s not entirely clear from the summary exactly what is meant by the proposal to “send the money directly to the American people.” The fact sheet says it would allow Americans to use the “extra” taxpayer-funded subsidies to “buy the health insurance of their choice.” In recent months, Congressional Republicans have proposed a few policies that would expand or fund Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), but those proposals vary significantly from each other.
The White House released the “plan” this weekend, and it’s just as light on details as the “outline” was.
It’s always the same with these liars.
— Hughes Hall (@petrichorist.bsky.social) April 17, 2026 at 5:45 PM
So the money goes to the insurance companies anyway. What an idiot
— Serenity.Sue (@serenitysue.bsky.social) April 17, 2026 at 5:45 PM
11 years and counting under Trump. Close to 20 in general.
Any day now, they’ll have a plan in two weeks. They’re just about done after the next recess.
— Please Eject the Disk (@pleaseejectthedisk.bsky.social) April 17, 2026 at 5:43 PM
“We will cut out the insurance companies…and give that money to people to go out and buy their own healthcare.” From…insurance companies?
MAGA: Brilliant 360-degree chess, sir!
— zobear.bsky.social (@zobear.bsky.social) April 17, 2026 at 6:34 PM
h/t Aaron Rupar
Trump: “We will pass the great healthcare plan”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 17, 2026 at 5:42 PM
