The Trump administration has quietly floated an eyebrow-raising new "fix" for Americans struggling with skyrocketing Obamacare costs: take out a loan from health insurers, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
Buried in the dense 1,121-page final rule the administration issued last month governing how the Affordable Care Act marketplace will operate next year, the proposal suggests insurers offer loans to cash-strapped customers who can't cover their out-of-pocket medical costs, per the Times. The debt would have to be repaid, "presumably with interest," the report noted.
The radical idea comes as more than a third of American households already carry medical debt — and as premiums have surged after the Republican-controlled Congress let enhanced ACA subsidies expire last year. Average Obamacare plan premiums hit $178 a month this year, up from $113 in 2025, according to KFF.
The average annual deductible now sits near $4,000 per person.
Stanford economist Neale Mahoney didn't mince words, telling the Times: "The last thing you want to do is to increase deductibles and load people up with more medical debt."
"It seems to be hugely out of touch with where people are," said Mahoney.
The proposal lands amid mounting fallout from Republican health care policy.
Hospitals across the country are buckling under the weight of Trump's marquee legislation, with rural facilities shuttering and major systems projecting billions in losses.
Trump himself recently unleashed an all-caps Truth Social rant insisting Americans should simply "buy their own" coverage. CMS administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz has repeatedly claimed the White House has a secret plan to fix Obamacare, but hasn't spilled the details.
A lawsuit challenging the new rule is already underway. Plaintiffs warn the rule could cause at least 3 million Americans to lose coverage in 2026 alone.
