President Donald Trump said Friday that he still wants to strike a bipartisan health care deal, expressing optimism that an agreement can be reached by the January 30 deadline for continuing funding to much of the government.
“We have a January 30 date coming up. I’d like to see if we could do it by then,” Trump said during a Fox News radio interview. “We’re going to do a lot. We’re going to get there. We’re going to give them better health insurance.”
The president offered no specifics about what a deal might look like, other than to repeat his insistence that it funnel money directly to individuals to help them purchase coverage, rather than being paid to insurance companies.
Trump also did not address the fate of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies at the center of the health care debate, which are set to expire at the end of the year.
Democrats have called for a clean extension of the subsidies, arguing it’s the only viable path this late in the process. Some Republican lawmakers have also pressed for a short-term continuation of the payments while the party works toward a bigger health proposal, amid fears of the political fallout if Americans’ health care costs are allowed to skyrocket.
Trump during the Fox News interview briefly alluded to that push, saying some are telling him, “let’s go another year.” But he has also suggested on several occasions he’d oppose any straightforward extension, arguing that the program has failed and that Republicans should focus on overhauling it.
“It’s no good and it is exploding, and it’s unacceptable,” Trump said of the ACA. “I want to give the money that we give to the insurance companies directly to the people, let the people buy their own health insurance. And that’s what’s going to happen.”
