Trump officials suggest US households take out loans to cover medical costs By Somaiyah Hafeez, 1m The Trump administration is suggesting that citizens who can't afford to cover their medical costs take out a loan from health insurance companies. In a lengthy document detailing how the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as ObamaCare, will operate next year, the Trump administration suggested that insurers consider offering loans to cash-strapped customers, the New York Times reported. Officials say the idea is a way to help people with low monthly premium and high out-of-pocket costs who encounter a devastatingly high medical bill. Under the plan, people can seek loans from their health insurer to cover their share of the bill. However, the debt will have to be repaid, likely with interest. • Experts told The Times the plan is likely to strain the budgets of people already dealing with higher health care costs at a time when more than a third of American households already have medical debt. “The last thing you want to do is to increase deductibles and load people up with more medical debt,” Neale Mahoney, an economist at Stanford University, told the outlet. “It seems to be hugely out of touch with where people are.” Last year, the Republican-controlled Congress decided to end additional federal tax credits, the more generous subsidies that significantly reduced the cost of Americans’ premiums. According to a recent analysis from KFF, a health care research group, this year, Obamacare plan premiums are $178 per month, on average, compared with $113 per month in 2025. The average annual deductible is now nearly $4,000 a person