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 Stymied in Congress by the failure of Senate Republicans to roll
back former President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law, Trump's
executive order would represent his administration's latest effort
to undermine the law without legislation.
The order would allow small businesses and individuals to band
together as associations to buy cheaper health plans that would be
exempt from some Obamacare requirements. Among the requirements
would be the mandate that all health plans cover 10 essential health
benefits, including maternity and newborn care, prescription drugs,
and mental health and addiction treatment.
The order would also change an Obama-era limit on the time span
people can use short-term health insurance plans, which are cheaper
but cover few medical benefits. Trump was expected to order an
extension for the period that long short-term insurance can be used
to about a year, versus three months under Obamacare.
Republicans, despite having control of the White House and both
chambers of Congress, have for months been unable to make good on
their seven-year promise to repeal Obamacare, which they view as a
government intrusion into Americans' healthcare.
Experts questioned whether Trump has the legal authority to expand
association health plans and whether some plans, but not others,
could be exempt from Obamacare rules.
The action could open Trump to legal challenges from Democratic
state attorneys general, who have said they will sue Trump if he
tries to destroy Obamacare, a law that brought health insurance
coverage to millions of Americans.
Experts said the association health plans could attract young,
healthy people and leave a sicker, more expensive patient pool in
the individual insurance markets created under the healthcare law,
driving up premiums and effectively eroding the law's protection for
those with pre-existing conditions.
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Conservative groups and lawmakers, including Republican Senator Rand
Paul, who said he has worked with Trump for months on the expected
order, and Republican Senator Ron Johnson, have cheered the expected
order. Paul opposed the Senate's most recent attempt to overhaul
Obamacare because he said it left too many of Obamcare's regulations
and spending programs in place.
Trump has taken a number of steps since assuming power in January to
weaken or undermine Obamacare. He has not committed to making
billions of dollars of payments to insurers guaranteed under
Obamacare, prompting many to exit the individual market or hike
premiums for 2018.
The administration also halved the open enrollment period, which
begins Nov. 1, and slashed the Obamacare advertising and outreach
budget.
(Reporting by Yasmeen Abutaleb; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and
Leslie Adler)
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