Many high-deductible customers are “chasing after that lower premium, but they actually do need to use care on an ongoing basis, and then they end up with a lot of debt or being terrified to use their insurance or seek care and ignoring symptoms,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior policy adviser at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a progressive health care-focused philanthropy.

The president touted his “Great Health Care Plan” at a Turning Point USA event two weeks ago, promising “to get it done one way or the other.”

Among Republicans on Capitol Hill, both Trump allies, like Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, and adversaries, such as Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, are trying to help.

Cassidy told POLITICO he thought most people would come out ahead given the lower premiums and tax savings. “Your total cost of being insured is less,” he said. (Trump and Cassidy are still at odds over Cassidy’s 2021 vote to convict Trump of inciting that Jan. 6’s riot at the Capitol.)

For Scott, it’s about giving patients greater control. The change would “radically re-empower the American people and let them dictate more of where their money goes,” he said.

The shift in Obamacare coincides with one in the employer-provided insurance market, where now 40 million Americans are enrolled in high-deductible plans. The percentage of people opting for the plans has nearly quadrupled, to more than 40 percent, in the last two decades.

For healthy people with disposable income who’ve joined the plans, it’s worked out. The amount people have banked in health savings accounts has grown from $3.4 billion in 2007 to an estimated $189 billion now. The money goes in, and comes out, tax-free to pay health care bills. The money can be invested in stocks and bonds. When owners of the accounts turn 65, they can use the money for anything if they pay tax on the growth.

But many people opting for the plans do so because the cheaper premiums are the only way they can stay insured, and the average amount enrollees are spending out of pocket on health care has ticked up as the plans gained popularity.

That’s likely to be the case for Obamacare enrollees going with high-deductible “bronze” plans this year. In 2026, the average out-of-pocket deductible payment for a bronze plan is over $7,000. Studies have shown that people with chronic diseases who are enrolled in the plans often skip necessary care or struggle to afford medical services.

A mass shift to high-deductible plans could leave millions of Americans who recently lost access to Obamacare subsidies vulnerable to unexpectedly high costs, health policy experts said. And Republicans’ push to expand access to nontraditional health plans on the ACA marketplace might create confusion for consumers shopping for the most affordable coverage options.

“You’re going to have parallel-marketed plans — next to comprehensive ACA plans — that are loosely regulated, that may look attractive at first because they they appear to have lower premiums, but then you come to find out when you actually need to use the plan you’re stuck with much higher out-of-pocket costs and fewer consumer protections,” said Michelle Long, a senior policy manager for the Program on Patient and Consumer Protections at KFF, a health policy research organization.

Republicans are eager to move ahead anyway.

Cassidy, the Health Committee chair, is leading a bill with the Finance chair, Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), that would direct federal funds used for Obamacare subsidies instead to individuals’ HSA accounts when they enroll in low-premium, high-deductible plans. Cassidy unveiled a health care agenda in April outlining a similar plan, which he told POLITICO he’s in the process of drafting legislation on and “should be something which has bipartisan support.”

Despite the higher deductibles people would face on the bronze plans, Cassidy said the policy would limit Americans’ out-of-pocket exposure, noting deductibles for the more expensive silver plans are also high. An average silver-plan deductible on the ACA in 2026 was about $5,000, though low-income enrollees who qualify for cost-sharing reductions would pay much less before coverage kicks in, sometimes as little as $100.

If the government were to put $2,000 into enrollees’ health savings accounts, Cassidy said, that would cover the annual medical expenses of the average American.

Patients with higher bills aren’t better off in silver plans, he said.

Scott said his proposal would do more to lower costs by allowing people to save in new Trump Health Freedom Accounts in any type of insurance plan. Currently, only people in high-deductible plans can open HSAs.

Scott’s plan would also let states waive certain ACA requirements, including coverage of essential health benefits, to lower premiums. That could leave enrollees who get sick on the hook for unexpected bills.

The plan is consistent with Trump’s efforts to offer more choices for Obamacare enrollees outside traditional ACA plans, including expanding short-term health plans, which Democrats have derided as “junk insurance.”

The Trump administration has also proposed a marketplace rule that would crack down on fraudulent ACA enrollments and expand several alternative plan options, including catastrophic plans — lower-premium plans that cover Obamacare’s essential health benefits but come with a more than $10,000 deductible for an individual in 2026. Trump also proposes allowing the sale of so-called non-network plans on the ACA marketplace, which typically come with high deductibles but have no networks of doctors or providers, an option some employers currently offer.

The proposals are roiling major players across the health industry, as insurers and some providers have spoken out against the GOP’s strategy. They argue consumers will be confused and could end up without the coverage they need.

“This model assumes a level of medical and insurance literacy that would be exceptionally challenging for Marketplace consumers and represents a fundamentally different experience from the one Exchange enrollees navigate today,” AHIP, a trade group representing health insurers, wrote in its comment letter on the proposed rule.

If insurers take a financial hit as a result of the policies, they might hike premiums across the market, raising costs for large swaths of Obamacare enrollees regardless of what plans they’re in.

“You’re certainly further fragmenting an already pretty fragile, fragmented health insurance market in this country,” Long said.

Blase thwarted arguments that Republicans’ proposals, like shifting people onto plans with HSAs or allowing non-network plans to be sold on the Obamacare marketplace, would make health care more expensive for consumers. He said there’s demand for more alternatives as ACA premiums have skyrocketed this year, and “people should be able to finance their health care in the way that makes the most sense for them.”

He added that opposition from insurers and providers to some of the GOP’s proposed expansions is a good sign that the ideas will “break the mold or put additional pressure” on the health care industry to lower pricing.

“When the industry opposes something, it’s generally a pretty good sign that whatever they’re opposing is going to lower the amount, which is going to make health care more affordable,” he said.

Insurers and providers have raised concerns about the Trump administration’s non-network plan proposals because those plans would make it difficult to satisfy the ACA requirement that they provide a “sufficient choice of providers.” They also argued that adding the plans to the exchanges would destabilize the ACA marketplace, prompting young, healthy Americans to leave the risk pool and raising costs for remaining enrollees.

But Blase and Sidecar Health, a benefits company that administers non-network plans for employees, said the companies are crying wolf. Blase is an adviser for Sidecar.

Insurers and providers argue the plans would leave consumers vulnerable to high out-of-pocket costs. Sidecar Health CEO Patrick Quigley said while he can’t speak for all non-network plans, under his company’s model, consumers often have no deductibles and greater access to providers than many ACA plans, which have narrow networks. Enrollees in the plans are allowed benefit amounts based on the median price of care in a given market, and they can shop around to choose doctors based on their budget.

Transparent health care prices create competition, ultimately lowering the cost of care, Quigley said.

But health policy experts aren’t sold on non-network plans or the other alternatives, like expanding HSA accounts, that Republicans are proposing. Hempstead said she welcomes new ideas that disrupt the status quo in health care — as prices are skyrocketing — but it’s “fantastical” to think that ACA consumers would be market movers just because they’re armed with pricing data.

“What you might see instead is somebody who gets duped into thinking it’d be better to have a lower-tier plan and $2,000. That could be a really terrible trade-off for them, because that $2,000 won’t last long if something really happens, and they’re just going to have a way more exposure to debt,” she said.

>The future is coverage for only catastrophic accidents and not preventive healthcare.
Anyone can see how this is a massive scam.

>>1511722
Not just a scam but will get thousands to millions of americans killed as doctors become unable to treat patients until it is far too late.

>>1511724
Amazing how former rep Alan Grayson explaining the Republican healthcare plan in 2009
>Don't get sick, and if you get sick, die quickly
Is the Republican's official platform.

>>1511722
>>1511724
My dudes, this is how healthcare worked for most of modern American history.

>>1511730
we're not your dude, esl shill

>>1511726
Actually correct. They don’t care about you, they just want your vote, and with how openly they’re rigging elections they barely even need that.
Republicans don’t want to govern, they want to rule.

We should be putting these people's heads on sharp sticks and displaying them outside government offices as a warning to the next admin. It baffles one how utterly impotent we are to stop these people from literally killing people to enrich themselves. Thank you braindead maga faggots

>>1511730
And why did we change it, fuckass?

Democrats are so fucking retarded that they don't understand that you can't let in 100 million illegal immigrants and give everyone in the country free healthcare.

Blatant glowie or troon? 1511736

>>1511734
That's just conservationism as a whole since they're inherently authoritarian.

>>1511741
We literally could give everyone and a 100 million immigrants free healthcare with the money we're spending on Trump's stupid war.

The mere fact that the "GOP" is pushing for any kind of insurance shows that they are just as bad as the other side. Insurance is a Masonic scam. It is the definition of a pyramid scheme.
If you cannot find a way to live, then you die. That is the way of nature. We are making the race weaker through insurance.

>>1511745
Elon Musk is one of the richest people on the planet. He can afford literally any kind of medical care he needs.

He's a nepobaby and a weedley, incompetent idiot. Your argument is objectively dogshit.

You can't conceive someone being unable to take care of themselves but still having value. That's sad, it doesn't really take that much imagination, from an injured ubermensch, to someone like Steven Hawking who couldn't have lived without assistance, but whose runny shits added more value to the human race than you have in your entire life.

>>1511745
>If you cannot find a way to live, then you die. That is the way of nature. We are making the race weaker through insurance.
We literally became the dominant species on earth through being able to care for each other.

>>1511726
>Is the Republican's official platform.
Shut up commie.
Move to Canada or Mexico or other commie countries like Europe or China or Russia or Japan with their socialist commie healthcare.
Bernie Sanders commie Nazis ain't coming to get me

>>1511751
>Communism is when I can actually go to the doctor without facing financial ruin

>>1511753
>the state has decided that you must give up all of your wealth to subsidize the healthcare of sixty new laborers. also, they will be staying in your one bedroom apartment for the foreseeable future

>>1511751
Jesus christ you people are so stupid.

>>1511751
>commie nazi
Conservatives just throwing any fear mongering they can now.
The tears created from nationalizing health care would solve our enegery crisis.

>>1511759
amazing how this isn't the case for any of the countries with "socialist commie healthcare".

Literally we take what we're spending on the war alone right now we could finance it without asking taxpayers for a single extra cent.

>>1511768
>amazing how this isn't the case for any of the countries with "socialist commie healthcare".
It was called the Red Terror. Communist leaders would make ridiculous demands of their citizens and then execute them for not being faithful enough to the state. It impacted every socialist country ranging from Russia to Spain.
You should read some firsthand accounts of what kind of suffering "socialist commie healthcare" brings. Hospitals in the USSR were filled with the corpses of newborn children that suffered from the neglect of a government-funded healthcare system.

>>1511715
An HDHP with an HSA is probably the best thing to do for a healthy person.
It's not about affluence. It's about having the money to pay when needed.
They also need to limit the amount that can be charged for services not being used, however otherwise the insurance clowns will profiteer (more) by raising prices.
I probably wouldn't trust a journo with reporting insurance information, and offering insurance advice without being licensed is illegal.
Perhaps Kelly Hooper should see some legal issues for being a fucktard.

>>1511768
>Literally we take what we're spending on the war alone right now we could finance it without asking taxpayers for a single extra cent.
HEY SHITLORD, how much does the US spend on it's supposedly broken healthcare system right now?
2 trillion. It's literally our biggest expenditure. You think a few billion will fix the problem?
What an idiot.

>>1511773
It wasn't real communism.

>>1511776
do you really think you can convince anyone spending a billion dollars a day for 20 years on a new war is going to end up being "a few billion"

>>1511779
That wasn't the point.

>>1511781
we know the point is to be a shill spewing nonsense, but can you at least respond to a riposte when it happens

>>1511773
>It was called the Red Terror. Communist leaders would make ridiculous demands of their citizens and then execute them for not being faithful enough to the state. It impacted every socialist country ranging from Russia to Spain.
>You should read some firsthand accounts of what kind of suffering "socialist commie healthcare" brings. Hospitals in the USSR were filled with the corpses of newborn children that suffered from the neglect of a government-funded healthcare system.
Don't try to pivot to actual communist countries; I'm talking about the ones you just fucking listed as "commie countries" like modern Europe, China, Japan, Canada, and Mexico. Or hell, fucking Russia which hasn't been Communist in any sense of the word since the Soviet Union collapsed.

>>1511784
Half of the nations you listed are so burdened by socialist healthcare policies that they try to convince their own citizens to kill themselves instead of waiting for a treatment. China and Canada make a special point of harvesting the organs of suicide victims just because they can.
Doesn't matter if a nation is full-blown USSR or just a socdem heavily taxed hell like the nordic countries. Socialist-anything is terrible.

>>1511788
why can't you get a real job though

>>1511788
>Half of the nations you listed are so burdened by socialist healthcare policies that they try to convince their own citizens to kill themselves instead of waiting for a treatment. China and Canada make a special point of harvesting the organs of suicide victims just because they can.
Yeah medical suicide isn't about "lessening strain on the healthcare system", it's about giving people a choice for end of life if they're gonna fucking kill themselves anyway. But keep with the false equivalences of trying to compare them to actual fucking communist states in history versus vaguely socialist policies that have helped them avoid the fucking quagmire that is the US healthcare system.

>>1511782
I mean you being a moron and trying to change the subject got the response it deserved...almost.
I forgot "Fuck you".

>>1511776
I think they spend so much because the insurance companies are ripping everyone off. They charge everything at massive overs, $30 for an aspirin and $6 for the glass of water type of thing. There’s other things like the cost of education putting the workers in massive debt requiring them to be overpaid, and obviously doctors and nurses should be paid well so they can focus on their work when they’re at work that’s not up for debate, it all adds to the cost though and it also leads to people taking extra shifts but I digress. The main thing is the insurers overcharging on everything, it’s pure greed so the company profits and the shareholders get more money from basically extortion

>>1511730
Yeah and it was SHIT.

>>1511797
To be fair, it's the hospitals that charge that price.
The insurance companies being retarded enough to pay that price for it speaks to some organized plot to defraud. if true.

>>1511788
The USA has a higher per capita suicide rate than China or Canada

>>1511814
Hell, the USA has a higher rate than Japan, a country literally known for suicides.

>>1511797
It makes you wonder what the point of the system is in the first place.
Why do we have healthcare tied to employer insurance? Why not just have businesses pay us and then we directly buy healthcare?

>>1512028
>Why do we have healthcare tied to employer insurance? Why not just have businesses pay us and then we directly buy healthcare?
Because then you can't be forced to stay in a job you hate.

>gut health care
>cut snap even though it's only like a hundred bucks
>cover your pedo friends
Yep, sounds pretty Republican to me.

>>1511751
hey shill-kun whats your excuse for the US paying for israels healthcare then