Within hours of taking the oath of office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at trying to fulfill one of his most impassioned campaign promises: Rolling back Obamacare.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at limiting the “burden” of the Obamacare health law that the incoming US leader has vowed to repeal.
The order instructs the US health secretary and other departments and agencies to “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 imposes a fiscal burden or other cost on a state, on consumers, on insurers or on a range of healthcare providers.
Trump has pledged to start undoing the divisive health law on his first day in office, while also declaring it inconceivable that poor Americans are locked out of coverage.
Obamacare added more than 20 million people onto insurance rolls, lowering the percentage of Americans without coverage from 16 percent in 2010 to 8.9 percent last year.
Only one third of the US population is covered by public insurance — either Medicare, for those over age 65, or Medicaid for the poorest Americans.
Half of all Americans are insured through their employers, while about seven percent are covered through the so-called individual market, which serves those who are self-employed or are employees without coverage through work.
About Obamacare:
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), commonly called the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and nicknamed Obamacare, is a United States federal statute enacted by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.
Under the act, hospitals and primary physicians would transform their practices financially, technologically, and clinically to drive better health outcomes, lower costs, and improve their methods of distribution and accessibility.
The Affordable Care Act was designed to increase health insurance quality and affordability, lower the uninsured rate by expanding insurance coverage and reduce the costs of healthcare.
It introduced mechanisms including mandates, subsidies and insurance exchanges.
The law requires insurers to accept all applicants, cover a specific list of conditions and charge the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or sex.