Key Takeaways:
- Most people believe that government subsidies are necessary in order for them to be able to afford health insurance.
- But government subsidies hide the true cost of healthcare and limit healthcare coverage options.
- Government subsidies are not your friend; they guarantee your health insurance premiums will continue to rise and your coverage will shrink.
- Government subsidies that are paid to eligible Obamacare enrollees are not to the enrollees’ advantage unless they have more options for purchasing health insurance.
- Real healthcare reform proposals designed to reduce premiums and to increase marketplace options are being rejected by Congress.
- Representatives and Senators need to hear from healthcare consumers, not lobbyists and large health insurance corporate donors.
The government subsidy payment system that is built into Obamacare is a very bad idea.
Why?
Because it guarantees that health insurance premiums will rise substantially every year.
Why?
Because when the federal government promises to pay the difference between what insurance companies charge and a fixed percentage of a person’s income, insurance companies will naturally keep raising their premiums.
The enhanced subsidy payment system – implemented in 2021 to help people whose income had been affected by the COVID pandemic – was an even worse idea.
Why?
Because it made even more people dependent on government payments to theoretically “lower” their health insurance premiums.
It takes a lot of courage for politicians to vote for discarding one bad political idea – much more so to discard two bad political ideas.
There are not nearly enough politicians with enough courage to end the Obamacare subsidy payments and replace them with a competitive free-market private health insurance system.
Republicans as well as Democrats lack political courage.
And so, Obamacare and the federal government subsidies – paid for with government debt – will live on for the foreseeable future.
Here are 5 Truths you need to understand about the difficulty of fixing our broken health insurance system:
- On December 16, 2005, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) introduced new healthcare reform legislation.
It was called the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act.
It was designed to end the monopoly of the major health insurance companies by:
- Expanding access to association health plans, allowing small businesses or groups to band together to purchase group health insurance at lower rates than they could get on their own.
- Increasing choice in the health insurance market by increasing tax-free employer contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs) – and by making HSAs permanent and portable from one employer to another.
- Reducing regulations on “stop-loss insurance” – the self-insurance plans of companies that use their own funds to pay health insurance claims for employees.
The bill projected health insurance premium reductions of 11% and government – that is, taxpayer – cost savings of $30 billion over ten years.
It did not include an extension of the enhanced Obamacare subsidies – which had been extended once by the Democrats – but which were scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.
Mike Johnson and conservative Republicans opposed extending the very costly enhanced subsidies, but so-called “moderate” Republicans disagreed along with all Democrats.
- The House voted to extend the Obamacare enhanced subsidies for three years.
The Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act passed the House on a narrow party-line vote.
Immediately, 4 liberal Republicans joined all Democrats in signing a discharge petition to force a separate vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies for three years.
A discharge petition requires 218 votes.
The 4 Republican defectors provided the required 218 votes.
Because of the House adjourning for the holidays, the vote to extend the enhanced subsidies occurred on January 6, 2016.
This separate bill still needs to be passed in the Senate and signed by President Trump, but it effectively kills any real healthcare reform for another 3 years.
- President Trump has now introduced his own healthcare “reform” legislation – The Great Healthcare Plan.
Announced on January 15th, the plan has some good ideas that would empower individuals instead of health insurance companies.
But the plan doesn’t “undo the bad government interventions and restrictions that limit choice and raise costs.”[1]
The plan is only a framework at this point – it’s in skeletal form and needs much detail added before it can be implemented.
Here are the main goals of The Great Healthcare Plan:
- Lower prescription drug prices by “codifying the Trump Administration’s Most-Favored-Nation deals to get Americans the same low prices for prescription drugs that people in other countries pay,”[2] and by making more verified safe pharmaceutical drugs available for over-the-counter purchase.
- Lower health insurance premiums by sending the taxpayer-funded Obamacare subsidies directly to those who qualify for them instead of sending those payments to the insurance companies.
- Bring transparency to the health insurance market by requiring companies to:
- publish the percentage of their revenue paid in claims versus overhead costs and profits
- publish the percentage of claims rejected and the percentage of rejected claims overturned on appeal
- publish rate and coverage comparisons on their websites
- post their pricing and fees for Medicaid and Medicare patients
Imagine how helpful the transparency requirements would be in shopping between different health insurance companies and policies.
Transparency would go a long way toward fixing what’s broken in the healthcare system.
“As the saying goes, sunlight is the best disinfectant,” President Trump said.[3]
On the other hand, retaining the enhanced Obamacare subsidies keeps the federal government at the center of health insurance premium pricing.
Government subsidies – even when sent to Obamacare policy holders – will not lower premium costs over the long haul.
They are called “Obamacash for enrollees” by Michael F. Cannon of the Cato Institute.[4]
The subsidies are “the infrastructure that is hurting patients, doctors, and prices today,” says Twila Base, president of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF).
- A better idea: universal health savings accounts (HSAs) that are not tied to employment.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the Health Marketplace and Savings Accounts for All Act on December 4, 2025.
This bill would allow any conceivable membership entity – such as Costco, Amazon, or a religious denomination or association of Christian schools – to collectively bargain with health insurers on behalf of their members.
The bill also proposes:
- increasing the annual cap on tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts from $4,400 for individuals and $8,750 for families to $24,500,
- delinking HSAs from employment,
- making every individual and family eligible to set up an HAS, and
- expanding the services that HSAs can cover – including premium payments.
The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Finance as S.3362.
No further action on this bill has taken place; it is still in committee.
This is where your voice is needed.
- Your voice is needed – and it’s more important than you know.
You don’t need to live in Kentucky to write to Senator Rand Paul and voice your support for his healthcare reform legislation.
The 4 rogue Republicans who sided with 214 Democrats to extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies for 3 years are:
- Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA, Pennsylvania’s 1st district)
- Mike Lawler (R-NY, New York’s 17th district)
- Rob Bresnahan (or Robert Bresnahan, R-PA, Pennsylvania’s 8th district)
- Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA, Pennsylvania’s 7th district)
You don’t need to live in Pennsylvania or New York to write to these congressmen and express your displeasure at their abandonment of conservative values and their support for continued government intervention in the health insurance system.
Nothing will change until conservatives, libertarians and Christians communicate with politicians and urge them to support a free-market health insurance system.
All 435 House representatives and all 100 senators are under constant pressure from the big health insurance companies to maintain the status quo:
- Limited choice in health insurance policies and coverages
- Health insurance tied to employment and not controlled by the consumer
- Massive government subsidies to hide the true costs of healthcare
- Heavy restrictions on HSAs and on alternate methods of coverage and payments
The politicians need to hear from you – their voters – more than they’re hearing from the lobbyists and from their large political donors.
Go to www.house.govannd to www.senate.gov to get addresses and contact information.
Only free-market competition and putting healthcare control back into the hands of the patients will cause the big health insurance companies to offer better products at lower prices.
What do you think? Write to me at [email protected].
FAQs:
Q: Why are the enhanced Obamacare subsidies such a bad idea?
A. The enhanced subsidies provide free healthcare for individuals and families with incomes up to 150% of the federal poverty level. And no one, no matter how high their income is required to pay more than 8.5% of their income for health insurance. These high government payments encourage insurance companies to drastically raise their premiums. Why not?
Q: Why can’t the Republicans reform the healthcare system since they control both the House and the Senate AND the White House?
A. Not all House Republicans are conservative; they don’t all vote as a block the way Democrats usually do. And their margin of control in the Senate is not enough to stop a Democrat filibuster on legislation that Democrats oppose. So conservative Republicans do NOT control Congress, even though they have very thin majorities in both houses.
Q: What is the solution to the U.S. healthcare crisis?
A. The solution is for conservatives, libertarians and Christians to write or call not only their own representatives and senators in Washington D.C., but also the Speaker of the House, Vice President JD Vance, and the 4 Republican defectors who sided with the Democrats to extend the enhanced Obamacare subsidies for three years. Politicians need to hear conservative healthcare policies from voters. That is the only way the healthcare system will be transformed.
About Craig Huey:
Craig Huey is the founder of Huey Alert and a nationally recognized conservative Christian strategist, author, and speaker who helps Americans understand—and act at—the intersection of faith, politics, and freedom.
Key credentials and experience:
- Founder of a marketing and political consulting agency that’s won 124 marketing awards active since Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign
- Advertising agency for small and large corporations.
- Political consultant to winning candidates nationwide using geofencing and advance AI and digital marketing.
- Interviewed in 148 TV, radio, and podcast appearances during the 2024 election cycle
- Speaker for hundreds of organizations, including over 100 churches
- Publisher of The Huey Alert newsletter
- Co-host of The Huey Alert Podcast with his wife, Shelly
Author of multiple books, including:
- The Deep State: 15 Surprising Dangers You Should Know
- The Great Deception: 10 Shocking Dangers and the Blueprint for Rescuing the American Dream
- The Christian Voter: 7 Non-Negotiables for Voting For, Not Against, Your Values
- The New Multichannel, Integrated Marketing: 28 Trends for Creating a Multichannel, Integrated Campaign to Boost Your Profits Now
- Craig has been regularly on national media multiple times such as FOX, FOX Business, OAN and Newsmax.
He doesn’t analyze politics from the sidelines.
He helps win battles that shape the future.
[1] J.D. Tuccille, https://mailchi.mp/reason.com/trumps-great-healthcare-plan-has-promise-but-should-add-more-freedom-for-americans?e=f460e6ec8a
[2] Ibid.
[3] Nate Jackson, https://patriotpost.us/articles/124292-whats-in-the-great-healthcare-plan-2026-01-16/print
[4] J.D. Tuccille, op.cit.