“She relished her role as a grandmother. … And although she enforced whatever household rules we’d set for bedtime, watching TV, or eating candy, she made clear that she sided with her ‘grandbabies’ in thinking that their parents were too darn strict.”

The statement, which was shared by Michelle and Barack; Michelle’s brother Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly; and Marian Robinson’s grandchildren, Avery, Leslie, Malia, Sasha, Austin and Aaron, continued, “There was and will be only one Marian Robinson.”

“In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example.”

Barack, 62, also expressed his condolences on her passing in a separate statement.

“There was and will be only one Marian Robinson. In our sadness, we are lifted up by the extraordinary gift of her life. And we will spend the rest of ours trying to live up to her example,” the former president wrote in a tweet.

Michelle’s father, Fraser Robinson, died in 1991. The author has often talked about her childhood and the lessons that both parents taught her.

Speaking to Chicago’s ABC 7 in 2022, the Princeton University and Harvard Law School graduate said she came from humble beginnings but that didn’t stop her from knowing her worth.

“We were poor. We lived in a small house, but what they gave us was a feeling of importance, a belief that our voices mattered at a very young age, a sense of understanding, of pushing through, resilience,” she said.

That same year, Michelle told NPR that even as a young child, her parents taught her responsibility — buying her and her brother alarm clocks at 5 years old and allowing them to walk to school on their own.

“And what that does for a kid – when your parent trust you, it encourages you. It tells you that if my mom thinks I can do this, that I must be capable,” Michelle said.

House Republicans on Wednesday approved a narrow package designed to lower health care costs for some Americans in the coming years – marking a win for leadership even as some of their own members complain it falls woefully short of tackling rising prices in 2026.

Speaker Mike Johnson and his team were aggressive in pushing their health care plan to the floor this week, vowing it will be the first step of a major GOP agenda on lowering costs next year.

They are specifically ignoring, however, the issue of the expiring enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were passed during the pandemic to help people afford premium costs. Those tax credits will expire at the end of the month, spiking premiums for tens of millions of Americans next year.

The House GOP package, instead, would allow small businesses — as well as self-employed people — to band together across industries to buy coverage through association health plans in an effort to lower premiums. It would also, once again, provide federal funding for the cost-sharing subsidies that lower-income Obamacare enrollees receive to reduce their deductibles and out-of-pocket costs for care.

House Republicans would also require pharmacy benefit managers, which act as middlemen between drugmakers and insurers or employers, to provide employers with data on the price of drugs, the rebates they receive from manufacturers and other operations.

The House voted 216-211 to send the measure to the Senate, which is not expected to vote on it before lawmakers leave town for the holiday recess.

The last-minute health care push from GOP leaders comes at a fraught moment for the party: President Donald Trump is striving to show he is making progress to lower costs for everyday Americans. But his own members are attacking Johnson and other GOP leaders for ignoring the looming Obamacare subsidies cliff, which would raise costs for tens of millions of Americans starting in January.

If the enhanced subsidies lapse, enrollees will see their annual premium payments increase by 114% — or about $1,000 — on average in 2026, according to KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. Roughly 2 million more people are also expected to be uninsured next year if the subsidies end, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The more generous assistance was enacted in 2021 as part of a Biden administration Covid-19 relief package.

A group of GOP centrists have been pressuring Johnson for months to reverse course on the subsidies — pushing bipartisan efforts to extend the subsidies while adding “guardrails” to ensure the dollars are not misused.

But Johnson has only dug in. Those centrists then decided Wednesday to openly defy Johnson and potentially issue him a humiliating defeat in January by signing onto a Democratic effort to extend the subsidies for three years. That plan from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is detested by most Republicans because it includes no reforms.

But centrists insist they had no other options to keep the money flowing in January – and prevent millions from losing coverage altogether – after party leaders repeatedly blocked their attempts to get a floor vote on the compromise proposals.

Trump’s Obamacare fix: Send consumers money, not insurance companies

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, promised a vote on the enhanced tax credits by mid-December but would not guarantee Republicans’ support to extend the subsidies. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, hasn’t committed to a vote and called the enhanced tax credits a “boondoggle.”

When signing legislation to end a record 43-day government shutdown without extending the subsidies, Trump said he wanted “money to go directly to you, the people.”

Though the tax credits would make Obamacare insurance more affordable for millions or enrollees, it would do little to slow rising health care costs most Americans face. Americans spend more on medical care than any other nation, and rising medical costs trigger higher insurance rates that all Americans pay, whether people get coverage through the workplace, Medicare or the Affordable Care Act.

More than 150 million Americans who get coverage through their employer will see average costs in 2026 rise at their highest level in a decade in a half. And older Americans on Medicare were notified their Part B premiums − the medical insurance that covers outpatient and preventive care, doctors’ visits and medical equipment − will jump 9.7% in 2026, straining affordability for seniors who rely on Social Security to make ends meet.

How would sending money directly to consumers work?

Trump hasn’t provided details on his proposal. In a Nov. 18 post on Truth Social, Trump said, “THE ONLY HEALTHCARE I WILL SUPPORT OR APPROVE IS SENDING THE MONEY DIRECTLY BACK TO THE PEOPLE” instead of insurance companies.

Members of Congress, former Trump administration officials and some academic researchers have proposed using health savings accounts to fund health care.

Health savings accounts are commonly used by working-age Americans who get health insurance through an employer. These accounts, paired with high-deductible health insurance plans, allow consumers to sock away part of their paycheck before taxes. The money can be spent on eligible expenses such as a doctor or hospital bill or prescription drugs.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, wants health savings accounts to be paired with “bronze” level Affordable Care Act plans. Families would get federal money deposited into a health savings account to shop for health care. “It empowers the patient to lower the cost,” Cassidy said in a Senate hearing Nov. 19.

Brian Blase, a White House adviser during the first Trump administration, has proposed shifting a portion of Obamacare funding to health savings accounts for low-income enrollees.

The Affordable Care Act now gives lower-income enrollees “cost-sharing reduction” payments to offset costs such as deductible and copays. Under Blase’s proposal, lower-income consumers would have to option of directing these subsidies to a health savings account instead of sending payments directly to insurance companies.

Similar to Blase’s proposal, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, announced a bill Nov. 20 that would convert the ACA’s cost-sharing reduction payments to HSA-style “Trump Health Freedom Accounts.” States would need to submit a waiver to the federal government to establish “freedom accounts.”

Scott’s proposal would allow consumers to use the accounts to pay for health insurance premiums. With limited exceptions, HSA accounts now can’t be used to pay for health insurance premiums.

“Americans will alwaysmake a better choice for their families than the government will,” Scott said in a statement. “We should give them that opportunity and take a huge step forward in fixing Obamacare.”

Democrats warn of health insurance ‘cliff’ for millions of Americans

Democrats are skeptical about the timing of the Republican proposals. They say there isn’t enough time to change Affordable Care Act tax credits without risking insurance coverage for millions of Americans.

“Individuals are going to lose health care. This is a cliff,” said Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto.

The Nevada Democrat said Congress should extend the enhanced premium tax credits for one year to give both parties time to study longer-term options. “It should be a thoughtful process and not putting people over a cliff,” Cortez Masto said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, agreed there’s not enough time to craft health care legislation before insurance rates reset for millions of ACA enrollees in January. Congress should extend the enhanced premium tax credits first, he said.

“There is no way for Congress to put together a proposal in the next couple of weeks that’s going to help people in January,” Wyden said in a Senate committee hearing Nov. 19.

Health policy experts also are skeptical of proposals that would divert existing Obamacare subsidies to health savings accounts. Such a move could risk upending the ACA marketplaces and compel healthier people to drop coverage, leaving insurance pools with sicker people and pricier monthly insurance premiums, they say.

“The original tax credits that have existed since the ACA was first passed, that’s what keeps that market working,” said Cynthia Cox, KFF’s vice president and director of the Program on the ACA. “Without those tax credits, the market collapses, and then there’s no option for people who have preexisting conditions to get health insurance.”

The concept of sending money directly to consumers instead of health insurers is “an old, old idea,” said Robert Kaestner, an economist and research professor at the University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy. “This has been the conservative health reform plan for 40 years.”

Kaestner said health savings accounts might work for middle- and higher-income people who can afford to fund the accounts while paying for everyday living expenses. But he said lower-income families don’t have the same financial cushion, especially when they face a costly health expense such as cancer treatment.

“The HSA can’t cover your cancer care,” Kaestner said.