Trump Republican health insurance
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during his speech during an event to announce an agreement with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to reduce prices of GLP-1 weight loss drugs in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, November 6, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump proposed a compromise on health insurance payments, calling on Republicans to send federal payments that would go to insurers under the Affordable Care Act directly to Americans to end the government shutdown.
“I recommend to Senate Republicans that the hundreds of billions of dollars currently being sent to money-sucking insurance companies to bail out poor health care through ObamaCare BE SENT DIRECTLY to the PEOPLE so they can buy their own much better health care and have money left over,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday, without providing details.
The post comes a day after Senate Republicans rejected Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s deal that would have allowed the U.S. government to reopen after a shutdown that began on October 1. The shutdown is now the longest in US history.
The plan Democrats unveiled Friday would protect federal ACA subsidies for at least a year in exchange for dropping their demand to include a longer-term extension of the Obamacare tax credits in an emergency government funding bill.
These subsidies, which are used by more than 20 million Americans, will expire at the end of December unless Congress extends them.
Read more about the government shutdown on CNBC
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called the Democrats’ proposal a “non-starter” on Friday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request from CNBC for comment or details on how Trump’s proposed direct payment plan would work.
Representatives for Senators Schumer and Thune did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The D.C. offices of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Members of Congress found themselves in a stalemate and could not find a compromise to end the shutdown. Democrats want a funding bill to include health subsidies that are set to expire for 24 million Americans at the end of the year. Republicans, meanwhile, say Congress must first pass a funding bill without conditions and allow the government to reopen before moving on to other issues.
In several posts on Saturday, Trump also reiterated his calls for an end to the filibuster, the Senate that requires 60 of its 100 members to pass most legislation. The GOP holds 53 seats in the Senate. There are 45 Democratic senators and two independents who caucus with them.
Senate Republicans opposed changing the rule and said earlier this week that they would not support a change. Trump had called on his party to put what he called the “nuclear option” into effect.
On Saturday, Trump claimed he was “making progress” with Republicans on changing the rule.
“The Democrats are rushing like dogs for the shutdown because they are scared to death that I will make progress with the Republicans on ENDING THE FILIBUSTER! Whether we make a deal or not, REPUBLICANS MUST ‘BLOW UP THE FILIBUSTER,'” he wrote.
