US President Donald Trump has threatened to end government payments to health insurers if Congress does not pass a new health care bill, despite warning that repealing Obamacare would leave millions of Americans without health insurance.
Trump made the warning in a Twitter message on Saturday in spite of a new survey that shows a majority of Americans want to either keep or modify the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law popularly known as Obamacare.
The federal government pays approximately $8 billion a year in cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers to lower the price of health coverage for low-income Americans.
In April, Trump threatened to end the federal payments to health insurers if Democratic lawmakers refused to negotiate over the healthcare bill.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday that if Trump carried out that threat, “every expert agrees that (insurance) premiums will go up…