Trump Takes On Obamacare

Trump Takes On Obamacare

- Peter Suderman

IN OCTOBER, AS Republicans in Congress-moved on from a failed effort to pass health care reform legislation, President Donald Trump took a series of steps to alter the administration of the Affordable Care Act on his own.

He issued an executive order to create additional paths for individuals and small businesses to purchase insurance that does not comply with all of the law’s regulations. He also cut off a series of subsidy payments to health insurers that a federal court had ruled were illegal. These moves were preceded by a decision in September to reduce the money spent encouraging people to sign up for insurance through government-run exchanges.

Supporters of the law, better known as Obamacare, argued that these actions amounted to intentional sabotage. Some close to Trump seemed to agree. At a conference for conservative activists, Steve Bannon, a former senior adviser to the president, approvingly said that cutting off payments to insurers would destroy the exchanges.