Posted by Michael Wonder on 23 Feb 2017
Trump’s executive order on health care — can it undermine the ACA if Congress fails to act?
22 February 2017 - Within hours after taking the oath of office, President Donald Trump executed his first official act: an executive order redeeming his campaign pledge to, on “day one,” begin repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
The New York Times characterised his action as itself “scaling back Obamacare,” and the Washington Post said the order “could effectively gut [the ACA’s] individual mandate” to obtain health insurance coverage. But consumer advocate Ron Pollack dismissed Trump’s action as “much ado about very little.”
To put these divergent assessments into perspective, it’s important to examine the actual executive order, recognise the departures from the Obama administration that it contemplates, and assess the scope and significance of changes the administration can lawfully make by executive order or other administrative actions.
