The White House is still offering no answers for Americans worried about the rising costs of healthcare.
The Affordable Care Act subsidies are set to expire at the end of the year, which will cause healthcare premiums for millions of Americans to skyrocket. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dodged questions about President Donald Trump‘s health care plan during a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
“The president is prepared to take action on healthcare and he’s wants Republicans on the Hill to do the same. As you have seen, Senate Republicans put forth their own legislation earlier this week,” Leavitt said when asked if Trump was prepared to let the subsidies expire.
She then blamed Democrats for the rising health care costs.
“Democrats wrote Obamacare. They passed it without a single Republican vote and then they ballooned it with these expensive COVID subsidies that completely distorted the health insurance market and then they doubled down, extending those subsidies and setting their own expiration date right now in 2025, which the administration is obviously well aware of,” she said.
She also emphasized that Trump is working with Republicans to “find a solution.”
She was then asked again about what Trump’s plan is for those expiring subsidies over the next two to three weeks. She did not specify the details of any plan.
“Well, you’ll hear more from the president and from the White House on that very soon,” Leavitt said.
Her comments came just after the Senate rejected two pieces of legislation to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies on Thursday.
Senators rejected a Democratic bill to extend the subsidies for three years and a Republican alternative that would have created new health savings accounts — an unceremonious end to a monthslong effort by Democrats to prevent the COVID-19-era subsidies from expiring on Jan. 1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.