October 12, 2017

Trump’s EO Injects Competition Into ObamaCare

Sen. Rand Paul called it “the biggest free market reform of health care in a generation.”

On Thursday, President Donald Trump bypassed a weak-kneed Republican Congress and began rolling back ObamaCare with an executive order that injects free market measures into the law. As he signed the order, Trump said, “So this is promoting health care, choice and competition all across the United States. This is going to be something that millions and millions of people will be signing up for and they’re going to be very happy. This will be great health care.” Trump declared that this was the first step in “providing millions of Americans with ObamaCare relief.”

So what does Trump’s executive order accomplish? Primarily, it directs the secretary of labor to consider expanding access to Association Health Plans. This would allow employers the freedom to form groups which offer coverage across state lines. “Insurance companies will be fighting to get every single person signed up,” Trump stated, adding, “And you will hopefully be negotiating, negotiating, negotiating. And you’ll get such low prices for such great care.”

Another impact of this order would be that those “association health plans” could be immune from some state and federal insurance requirements. At the same time employers would not be free to exclude employees from their plans based on preexisting conditions, nor charge more to those employees with long-term health issues.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a leading critic of the “Affordable” Care Act, called Trump’s order “the biggest free market reform of health care in a generation.” Paul also stated, “This reform, if it works and goes as planned, will allow millions of people to get insurance across state lines at an inexpensive price.” Indeed, as news continues to come out of more and more insurance companies pulling out of various state-backed ObamaCare exchanges, this is welcome news.

A final note: Trump tweeted yesterday, “Since Congress can’t get its act together on HealthCare, I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people — FAST.” That “pen” part sounds eerily like Barack Obama, but Trump’s action is substantially different. While Democrats, who controlled Congress at the time ObamaCare passed, deliberately left a lot of the law’s details to be worked out by the administration, Trump is now wielding that same power to undo some of the damage. Live by the pen, die by the pen.

(Edited.)

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.