Our DC Experts Weigh In on the President's Executive Order

The Impact of President Trump on Obamacare

Last week, President Trump signed an executive order that instructs his administration to waive, defer and exempt as much of Obamacare as possible. Yesterday, two Republican Senators, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine, proposed a partial replacement for the ACA, termed “The Patient Freedom Act of 2017.” Our DC experts believe that the executive order is primarily thematic indicating where policy is headed under the new Administration, namely getting rid of as much of the ACA as possible as opposed to having specific actual force in repealing specific ACA provisions. The process of getting rid of ACA provisions has to go through the regular federal agency process of giving notice, providing for a comment period, and issuing a final rule or an interim final rule. Our experts do not expect specific proposals for the next couple of weeks until the heads of the depts with jurisdiction are confirmed (likely in early- to mid-Feb) – Tom Price as HHS Secretary,