Republicans now have an answer for Democrats’ Medicare-for-all
Republicans, including President Trump, have repeatedly emphasized the need to improve affordability for Americans, and healthcare costs often hit families the hardest.
By Amanda Head
Published: December 30, 2025 10:56pm
Democratic proposals to repair America’s broken healthcare system have reliably shown a slide towards healthcare-for-all. But for the first time since the modern healthcare system began, Republicans have what they say is an answer.
"Democrats made health insurance illegal in the United States. You can't buy health insurance. All you can buy is a health care plan. We need to allow people who just want 'I got hit by a bus, or I got cancer' insurance to buy that, and they can say, 'I can take care of everything by myself.' We need to solve that health insurance problem. Democrats have caused all of these problems, but it is now our job to fix them all, and we're laser focused on doing it well," Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., told Just The News exclusively.
Republicans lay out their plans: direct depositsOne recent proposal from Senate Republicans Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Mike Crapo of Idaho involves a plan to redirect expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) credits into direct HSA deposits ($1,000 for ages 18-49, $1,500 for 50-64) for low- to middle-income individuals buying bronze or catastrophic plans. Their proposal would require Medicaid citizenship verification and bar funds for abortions or gender-affirming care. This aims to shift aid from insurers to individuals, potentially reducing premiums by promoting cheaper high-deductible plans.
The Republican brainstorming to patch ACA has been all-hands-on-deck. Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., spoke to Just The News and brought his own ideas to the table including the crucial competition factor: "The way to fix this is to put competition back into the system. And get rid of the pharmacy benefit rent managers, get rid of all of these middle people that have driven up the cost of health care."
"We have so few insurance carriers. We need to make clear is that an individual state has the right to license individual health insurance products to be sold in that individual state. And then, if they want to have some type of joint service agreement between [bordering states] like Alabama, Georgia, Florida, makes plenty of sense to me. But we have to get smaller companies into the business to put pressure on the big companies."
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https://justthenews.com/government/congress/republicans-now-have-answer-democrats-medicare-all
