TWO blows last week to the US Affordable Care Act will make it easier to sidestep Obama鈥檚 healthcare legislation.
First, President Trump signed an executive order asking federal agencies to allow 鈥渟hort-term insurance鈥� to last up to a year. This type of stripped-back health coverage is exempt from ACA rules and is currently limited to three months.
Hours later, Trump announced that the government would no longer make payments to help subsidise out-of-pocket healthcare costs for those on low incomes. Without this help from the government, insurers may decide to raise premiums or stop offering plans to poorer people.
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鈥淢y sense is what鈥檚 primarily motivating these announcements is [Trump鈥檚] frustration that Congress hasn鈥檛 passed anything on healthcare, so he鈥檚 taking what he sees as bold steps to change healthcare,鈥� says Benjamin Sommers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淗ealth double blow鈥�