White House deputy chief of staff James Blair said Tuesday that President Donald Trump would love to push for healthcare reform “bigger” than Congress has the appetite for, signaling they may soon put forward a healthcare bill.
“We’re going to have the health care conversation. We’re going to put some legislation forward,” Blair said at a Bloomberg Government policy breakfast.
The deputy chief that there could be interest in bipartisan reform; however, he said if “that path is foreclosed, there is the partisan path of reconciliation as well.”
“The president probably would like to go bigger than the Hill has the appetite for, so we’ll have to see how that, you know, works out,” he continued.
James Blair, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center on February 21, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Maryland. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Republican lawmakers have said they believe that the White House will release a framework to lower health insurance costs, expand health savings accounts (HSAs), and scrap parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Blair signaled the president’s interest in healthcare reform as House Republican leadership delivered a presentation on addressing what they dubbed the “Unaffordable Care Act”:
A slide deck shared by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise in the Tuesday meeting made clear that House GOP leadership also falls in the overhaul camp. One slide viewed by POLITICO was titled “The Unaffordable Care Act,” and highlighted statistics showing that premiums have increased by 80 percent since the ACA’s passage. It also claimed that more than 50 percent of Obamacare enrollees did not file a single claim this year.
Walking into the meeting, Scalise said in a brief interview that he planned to keep talking with the chairs of three key committees of jurisdiction over health policy — Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and the Workforce.
Health care became a focal point in national politics as Democrats shut down the government for weeks over enhanced Obamacare subsidies that will expire at the end of the year. Democrats first enhanced these subsidies through the $1.9 trillion, coronavirus-era stimulus plan, the American Rescue Plan. They continued the subsidies through the end of 2025 with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump weighed in on the issue, stating that healthcare dollars should go directly to the American people instead of through subsidies to health insurance companies.
He wrote:
THE ONLY HEALTHCARE I WILL SUPPORT OR APPROVE IS SENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE, WITH NOTHING GOING TO THE BIG, FAT, RICH INSURANCE COMPANIES, WHO HAVE MADE $TRILLIONS, AND RIPPED OFF AMERICA LONG ENOUGH. THE PEOPLE WILL BE ALLOWED TO NEGOTIATE AND BUY THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, INSURANCE. POWER TO THE PEOPLE! Congress, do not waste your time and energy on anything else. This is the only way to have great Healthcare in America!!!
Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger (R-TX) said that a second reconciliation bill should address affordability, which should include healthcare reform.
“The Democrats are incapable of coming up with a plan that is competitive, transparent and actually reduces costs,” Pfluger remarked.
