President Donald Trump didn’t wait long to get into the Oval Office before signing his first executive order. And as promised, it was directed against the “Affordable Care Act,” the cornerstone legislation of his predecessor, also known as Obamacare.
According to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, the order asked the states to “ease the burden of ObamaCare,” but he offered few other details on the substance of the order, which was not immediately provided to media outlets.
The official text of the order makes it clear that it is the full intention of President Trump to seek full repeal of the legislation, but in the meantime he will take the steps “to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Act, and prepare to afford the States more flexibility and control to create a more free and open healthcare market.”
The second section of the order says that all appropriate agencies should, “exercise all authority and discretion available to them to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act” that would impose a burden on Americans.
The order tasks agencies and departments to grant more flexibility to states and create “a free and open market in interstate commerce for the offering of healthcare services and health insurance.”
Trump had promised repeatedly to repeal Obamacare during his presidential campaign but the plan had fallen into doubt after some Republicans were pressured by constituents over worries about losing health insurance. Vice President Mike Pence tried to quell those fears by reassuring Americans that they could keep their insurance if they liked it.
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