President Donald Trump announced Monday that he would support a two-year extension of Affordable Care Act tax credits, mere days after declaring in all caps on Truth Social that he would only approve sending money "DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE" and away from insurance companies.
The administration's new proposal, dubbed the "Healthcare Price Cuts Act," will extend the enhanced premium tax credits that were set to expire at the end of December, a move that comes after premiums threatened to more than double for the 22 million Americans enrolled in ACA marketplace plans.
Sources close to the president report that Trump's dramatic about-face occurred during a weekend golf outing at Mar-a-Lago, where he allegedly realized that several of the "big, fat, rich insurance companies" he had been railing against were actually run by club members who had donated generously to his campaign.
The new framework includes income limits capping eligibility at 700% of the federal poverty level and requires minimum premium payments, changes Republicans insisted were necessary to combat fraud. The plan also features a health savings account component that Trump's advisors assure him allows money to go "directly to the people," even though the funds will still be administered through the same insurance marketplace structure he spent weeks denouncing.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had teased an announcement on healthcare costs during a Sunday morning talk show appearance, though the rollout was delayed after congressional Republicans reportedly needed additional time to figure out how to explain the reversal to constituents who had been told for weeks that extending the subsidies would be a betrayal of conservative principles.
The two-year extension conveniently stretches beyond the 2026 midterm elections, providing Republicans with what political analysts are calling "just enough time to forget this ever happened before voters go to the polls."
When reached for comment, Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, insisted that extending subsidies through the same insurance marketplace framework Trump had condemned as a scam actually represents a revolutionary transformation of American healthcare, though he declined to specify how.
Democratic lawmakers expressed relief that millions of Americans would not see their premiums skyrocket, while also noting the irony of Republicans spending 15 years trying to dismantle the Affordable Care Act only to quietly preserve it when faced with the political consequences of actually following through on their promises.
