Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), a physician and one of the Senate’s leading voices on health care, faced heavy criticism this weekend after endorsing Donald Trump’s new proposal to redirect federal health care funds directly to individuals instead of insurance companies.
The controversy began when Trump announced on Truth Social that he wanted to end what he called “money sucking” payments to insurers that support the Affordable Care Act.
“I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER HEALTHCARE, and have money left over,” Trump wrote.
Cassidy shared the post on X, adding, “I agree with President Trump! We should give the money directly to the patients.”
That endorsement sparked outrage from policy experts and political observers. Political scientist Norman Ornstein rebuked Cassidy, writing, “First, do no harm. You violate that oath every single day. You’re opening up the door to sham plans that will not cover anybody, and reinstate the pre-existing conditions scam. You used to be a good and honest senator. What happened?”
Others piled on. Union official Collin Reischman mocked the idea, saying, “‘We should end subsidies for insurance by taking that exact same amount of money and giving it directly to people to buy insurance’ yes masterfully done sir, why didn’t we think of that.”
Virginia city councilman R. Kirk McPike warned that “replacing insurance with direct cash transfers to people would mean no one but the very rich could ever receive treatment for a chronic condition like heart disease or diabetes or an expensive disease like cancer.”
Columnist Stephanie Grace added, “Two things here. 1) Donald Trump knows nothing about the health care industry’s economics. 2) Bill Cassidy does and retweeted this anyway.”
Personal injury attorney James Abrenio wrote, “I’m convinced Trump has no clue how health insurance works but just hates that Obama did something that could never come close to accomplishing.”
Health care analyst Heath Veuleman questioned Cassidy directly, asking whether the plan would truly empower physicians or simply funnel more taxpayer dollars to large health systems.
Cassidy has not responded publicly to the backlash. The debate adds new tension within Republican ranks over health policy as the government shutdown continues and Trump’s influence looms large over the party’s agenda.