The following content is sponsored by Americans for Limited Government.
After years of Washington politicians lining the pockets of insurance companies and anointing them “essential partners,” President Trump has called out the insurance monopoly for what it is. “Let the money go not to the big fat cats and the insurance companies that made 1,700 percent over a short period of time,” President Trump said.
“Let the money go directly to the people, where they can buy their own health care.”
The big health insurance companies that have gorged themselves at the Obamacare trough are finally being put under the spotlight and held to account. While these companies have grown richer, patients have been left paying ever-increasing premiums and deductibles with steadily decreasing care in return.
Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect, the health insurance market has become less competitive and affordable. Insurance companies have grown more consolidated, more monopolized, and more profitable. According to a report from the American Medical Association, more than 70 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas are now dominated by just one or two insurers, giving those companies enormous pricing power over patients who are desperate for care.
UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer with over 2,600 subsidiaries, reported third-quarter 2025 revenues of $113.2 billion, representing a 12 percent increase year over year. At that pace, UnitedHealth’s quarterly revenue rivals or exceeds the annual revenue of global technology companies such as Google, underscoring just how concentrated and lucrative the insurance market has become.
Since the implementation of Obamacare, the ACA has funneled hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies through insurance companies, allowing Washington to cut checks to insurers while pretending they’re “helping patients.” Instead, insurers and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are skimming profits and passing costs downstream to patients.
If affordability is the goal, consolidation will not deliver it. Competition will. That means more insurance plan options, more choices for patients, and policies that put dollars directly in consumers’ hands instead of padding insurers’ bank accounts.
President Trump is asking a simple yet important question: Why does Washington send money to insurance companies instead of putting it directly in patients’ pockets?
The president is rightfully arguing that meaningful healthcare reform must remove insurance companies from a system they have long exploited and redirect resources directly to patients. In recent Truth Social posts, President Trump warned that Obamacare routes hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars through insurers to sustain a broken model that limits choice and drives up costs.
That vision is already gaining traction on Capitol Hill. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) has introduced legislation aimed at undoing some of the damage caused by Obamacare through the More Affordable Care Act. The proposed legislation, which has gained support among Senate Republicans, would advance patient-directed reforms that would shift subsidies away from insurance company balance sheets and toward the Americans struggling to afford necessary care. Another bill that would keep Big Insurance accountable is Senator Bill Cassidy’s (R-LA) NO UPCODE Act, which cuts the industry’s massive overbilling of Medicare Advantage. As momentum builds on Capitol Hill, insurers are beginning to scramble.
Obamacare did not “rein in insurers” – it enriched them. Now is the time for the Trump administration and Congress to trim the fat and turn off the subsidy spigot that rewards large health insurance companies while leaving patients behind.