While urging House Republicans to make healthcare "your issue" by letting money go directly to patients and not to "the big fat cats in the insurance companies," President Donald Trump acknowledged that advancing such a plan would require political "flexibility" with the Hyde Amendment.
The amendment, named after former Illinois GOP Rep. Henry Hyde, bans the use of federal funds for most abortions — only allowing exceptions for pregnancies from rape, incest, or when the mother's life is at risk.
In remarks to House GOP members at the Trump-Kennedy Center seen Tuesday on Newsmax, Trump argued that Republicans can flip one of Democrats' favorite political weapons by embracing a consumer-driven approach that empowers families to buy coverage themselves while cutting out what he portrayed as massive profits generated by "stupid politicians" protecting the insurance industry.
Trump said he was struck after reading a report about how much money insurance companies are making and concluded the system is rigged to benefit corporate interests instead of patients.
"They're making that kind of money, and they're making it because of stupid politicians," Trump said, adding that lawmakers "allow them to make it."
Trump pointed to Democrats' long reliance on Obamacare as their signature healthcare achievement, saying it has become one of the few issues they believe they can run on — even though, he argued, they've failed at delivering real reforms.
"We don't have that as one of our issues," Trump told GOP leaders, "it's the only thing they have."
But Trump argued Republicans can seize the advantage by simply letting the money follow the patient.
"Let the money go directly to the people," Trump said. "Let the money go into a healthcare account or however you do it … where they can buy their own healthcare."
He said the approach would break Democrats' grip because, in Trump's telling, the party is too entangled with the insurance industry to credibly oppose it.
"They're all owned by the insurance companies, and they cannot fight it successfully," he said. "There's nothing they can do."
Trump compared the dynamic to Democrats' resistance to voter ID, mocking the arguments he said he recently watched from a Democrat trying to explain why IDs should not be required.
"The guy was a fool. He looked like an idiot," Trump said, suggesting Democrats will look similarly weak defending insurance-company middlemen if Republicans push a direct-to-patient model.
Trump acknowledged that advancing such a plan would require political "flexibility," including navigating contentious issues such as Hyde Amendment restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortion.
"You have to be a little flexible on Hyde," he said.
"You got to work something. You got to use ingenuity."
Still, Trump insisted the idea is politically powerful — perhaps one of his most resonant messages in recent months.
"I'm not sure that I've ever said anything that was more impactful," he said, claiming the response was overwhelming.
"If you can somehow do that … you're going to have this … this is going to be your issue," he told House GOP leaders, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other top Republicans.
Trump also used the remarks to warn Republicans not to let Democrats seize other cultural and family-focused issues, including in vitro fertilization, saying he intervened previously when an Alabama case threatened fertility clinics and that the GOP must continue to "own the issue."
Trump said he plans to meet soon with "all 14" major insurance companies, as well as oil executives, tying his healthcare push to his broader message of confronting entrenched special interests while lowering costs for Americans.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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