Sen. Bill Cassidy

Now that President Donald Trump has said he will not sign any legislation to allow Affordable Care Act subsidies to be reinstated next year, Republican lawmakers are looking for ways to implement the president’s goal of giving funds directly to Americans instead of insurance companies.

One Republican lawmaker, U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — a medical doctor — shared his idea for how the system might work.

Senator Cassidy is the powerful chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and has sway over health care decisions. He also cast a decisive vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Cassidy compared making health care decisions to a shopper at a grocery or drug store.

“By giving the patient the money herself, though, she becomes a wiser consumer,” Senator Cassidy told Fox News on Wednesday.

“And just think about it. If she goes and gets two types of shampoo and one’s a dollar cheaper, she’ll get the cheaper one,” he said. “And the other one lowers their price.”

“Once you give her the power of having the purse, the power of making the decision, she’s gonna shop, get the lower price,” he insisted. “That begins to save her money and squeeze fat and waste out of the healthcare system that ultimately translates into lower premiums.”

Cassidy praised the shopping around for lower priced health care as the “first step in lowering healthcare costs.”