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| Donald Trump signs executive order to side-step Obamacare rules | Donald Trump signs executive order to side-step Obamacare rules |
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| President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to make it easier for Americans to buy bare-bones health insurance plans and circumvent Obamacare rules — but the action faces possible legal challenges. | |
| Stymied in Congress by the failure of Senate Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Mr Trump's executive order appears to be his administration's latest effort to undermine the 2010 law without action by legislators. | |
| “The time has come to give Americans the freedom to purchase health insurance across state lines, which will create a truly competitive national marketplace that will bring costs way down and provide far better care,” Mr Trump said in a statement. | |
| Mr Trump has directed three cabinet agencies to develop rules that would expand access to less expensive, less comprehensive insurance with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers than those mandated under the ACA. | |
| Most of the changes to the current system will not come until federal agencies adopt regulations, after giving the public an opportunity to make comments — a process that could take months. | |
| Republicans have long supported the idea to allow coverage to be sold across state lines, saying this would be the most effective way to promote competition among health insurers – particularly in areas where people buying coverage on their own only have one insurer selling plans. | |
| The stripped-down insurance policies allowed under the order are likely to entice young and healthy people away from the individual insurance markets created by the ACA. That could further destabilise those markets because only the sickest people would likely continue purchasing insurance on the exchanges. | |
| If this happens, experts expect premiums to rise rapidly, effectively eroding the law's protection that people with pre-existing medical conditions cannot be charged more. | |
| Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer wrote on Twitter that the President's executive order “couldn't be further from his ‘great health care’ promise” and that it will increase costs for seniors and people with preexisting conditions. | |
| “And it will add further chaos to the markets. If the system deteriorates, make no mistake about it, the blame will fall squarely on @POTUS,” Mr Shumer added, using the acronym to refer to the President of the US. | |
| Mr Trump's decision to issue an executive order on healthcare is another example of his growing impatience with Congress, particularly the Senate, for not being able to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace his predecessor's signature domestic policy achievement. |