As the Trump administration fully gets underway, one of the president’s closest advisers has offered more details in his healthcare plan.
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, gave a series of interviews this weekend in which she laid out more concrete elements that could be a part of President Donald Trump’s plans for a replacement of the Affordable Care Act. Trump signed an executive order on the ACA in his first few hours as president, signaling that he’s willing to undo as many parts of the law he can on his own, even as Congress marches toward a repeal through budget reconciliation.
Conway said a Republican plan would turn control of Medicaid over to the states as part of a block grant program, according to an article from National Public Radio. The government would issue funding to states to implement Medicaid programs as they see fit, a proposal that has long been put forward by the GOP. Conway didn’t offer specifics on how a block grant would be structured.
RELATED: Donald Trump's executive order on the ACA sparks fears of insurance market instability
"Those who are closest to the people in need will be administering it," Conway told NBC News. "You really cut out the fraud, waste and abuse, and you get the help directly to them."
In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” Conway said that Trump may no longer enforce the individual mandate, according to Reuters. She also told CBS’s “Face the Nation” that people enrolled in ACA plans would not lose their coverage in the interim between the law’s repeal and the finalization of a replacement plan. Trump has also said that he wants to provide "insurance for everybody," an idea that is in conflict with his own party.
Conway also said that a replacement for the ACA will make greater use of health savings accounts that would allow people to save money for care, according to NPR. Critics have noted that these accounts aren’t often useful to those with low incomes, but are useful for the wealthy.