Trump Signs Executive Order To 'Ease The Burdens Of Obamacare'

[milestogo]

Source: NPR

As promised, President Trump got to work on Day 1, spending some time in the Oval Office in between the inaugural parade and a trio of formal balls.

Trump signed an executive order Friday night directing government agencies to "ease the burdens" of Obamacare while the new administration and Congress work toward repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus presented Trump with the order, which he described as: "An executive order minimizing the economic burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act pending repeal."

It's not clear what kind of relief the executive order envisions.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/2017/01/20/510868508/trump-signs-executive-order-to-ease-the-burdens-of-obamacare-details-still-uncle

---

With cheetoman it's always going to be the opposite of what it sounds like. He's creating burdens somewhere.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. It will be to ease the burden on those poor, suffering insurance companies

and transfer it to their customers.

[LudwigPastorius]

55. "It will be to ease the burden on those poor, suffering insurance companies..."

Indeed.

"Regulatory burdens" like having to insure people with pre-existing conditions and the 80/20 medical loss rule that forces insurance companies to spend money on actual health care services.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. Premiums can now be paid

with blood, or death

[world wide wally]

3. Is that saying ins. companies don't have to pay if they don't want to?

[SunSeeker]

9. No. nt

[riversedge]

58. Potentially the biggest effect of this order could be widespread waivers from the individual manda

Nothing but trouble and chaos to follow. That is the plan for Trump and his minions--create more chaos. damn





Trump signs executive order that could effectively gut Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-that-could-lift-affordable-care-acts-individual-mandate/2017/01/20/8c99e35e-df70-11e6-b2cf-b67fe3285cbc_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-bignews3_firstdaynews-0905pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.0df15e08d537

Trump signs first executive order on Obamacare
Play Video1:15
President Trump signs his first executive order in the Oval Office directing agencies to ease the regulatory burdens associated with Obamacare as Vice President Pence swears in Gen. James Mattis and John Kelly. (Reuters)




By Ashley Parker and Amy Goldstein January 20 at 10:39 PM
................................
Though the new administration’s specific intentions are not yet clear, the order’s breadth and early timing carry symbolic value for a president who made repealing the ACA — his predecessor’s signature domestic achievement — a leading campaign promise.

Additionally, the order’s language about easing economic and regulatory burdens aligns with long-standing Republican orthodoxy that the government exerts too heavy a hand on the U.S. health-care system.


“Potentially the biggest effect of this order could be widespread waivers from the individual mandate, which would likely create chaos in the individual insurance market,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the Kaiser Family Foundation. In addition, he said, the order suggests that insurers may have new flexibility on the benefits they must provide.

“This doesn’t grant any new powers to federal agencies, but it sends a clear signal that they should use whatever authority they have to scale back regulations and penalties. The Trump administration is looking to unwind the ACA, not necessarily waiting for Congress,” Levitt said.........................

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

68. Exactly

Watch premiums go through the roof once again.

[elmac]

4. Transitioning over to the new barter system

[Salviati]

11. Under this new system, can we pay our taxes directly to trump in the form of KFC doubledowns?

Given his current health, I think that could be a win-win.

[elmac]

43. I think they take everything but extra crispy

that is too good to give to the Doc

[Yavin4]

26. I live in NYC.

How in the hell am I going to get 41 chickens on a subway?

[SummerSnow]

31. get a bucket of kfc chicken, the chickens don't have to be alive right?

[Yavin4]

34. A KFC bucket is like one or two chickens.

I would need at least 20 buckets, right? Also, I think that my healthcare provider only takes live chickens.

[SummerSnow]

35. A live chicken might cost $5.Then you have to ask do you have to pluck the feathers first or not.

[Yavin4]

36. I just looked this up. A cow is worth something like $1642.

My colonoscopy was over $4000. I would need two cows and a calf in order to pay for it.

[Thor_MN]

51. Mine cost north of $16,000, but that was because it resulted in a GI bleed,

several units of saline IV, a night in the ICU, a transfusion and another day in the hospital for monitoring... Fortunately my insurance through work has a $2500 out of pocket maximum.

I'd need a whole farmyard to pay the whole bill...

[Yavin4]

56. Wow. Was everything okay?

Sounds intense.

[Thor_MN]

61. For what it was, it was remakably a non-event..

No pain, I was never dizzy or close to passing out. My blood pressure at it's lowest was like 95 / 75, which is way, way low for me. One of the sites where they removed a polyp apparently must have been near a blood vessel and broke open after they finished. I drove myself back to the hospital and after about 6 hours in the ER, they sent me to the ICU for a transfusion and monitoring. They said 70% of the time things like this heal themselves, which it did. They also said that that it was like a 1 in 700,000 chance or more of a GI bleed from a colonoscopy. Anyway, it was an extra day of not being able to eat, $2500 going out the door, extra day of PTO gone.

On the plus side, it may have been the blood loss, but the nurses that I had were amazingly good looking. It was like they raided a modeling agency to take my vitals every hour for the first 24 hours and every other hour after that. At least that is what I remembered.

I am due, now a year later, to go back for another one. The hardest part, is getting it scheduled. You can't drive yourself or take a cab, even though the drugs had no effect other than a short nap while they started. I was fine and perfectly sober by the time they finished. I'm single, so I have to get one of my siblings to drive me and coordinate that with the doctors schedule.

It was no big deal and the prep was by far the worst part. A day of no food, spending some time getting friendly with your porcelain throne. The worst part of the prep was drinking a bottle of magnesium citrate... Do not get the grape flavor, it was awful. If your doctor tells you to get one, just do it. When it is done, you will wonder what the big deal was.

[Yavin4]

67. Glad to hear that you're okay.

I had to do that prep and it wasn't fun. I also had to arrange for a visiting nurse to escort me. The total procedure was $4000, but my insurance only paid $3700. So I was out of pocket $400.

[Fast Walker 52]

5. what total fucking bullshit

fuck fuck fuck

[bucolic_frolic]

6. It's the new DEREGULATION Mumbo-Jumbo

Soon it will apply to the environment, oil drillers, mining companies, polluters,
developers, logging, pipelines .... this is just priming the pump. Read the lingo,
it's a general formula.

We are in BIG trouble.

[Fred Sanders]

20. This is meaningless gobblygoop, meant to appease the deplorables who will think it great.

The ACA is an Act of Congress and can not be changed, modified or interfered with without another Act of Congress.

[customerserviceguy]

24. President Obama

made a lot of executive orders to deal with the implementation of the ACA. Waivers were granted to states to make modifications that they saw fit, as happened in Pence's Indiana.

We expected this, didn't we?

[Crash2Parties]

46. Red state governors won't care, they'll move forward as if it was an ACA "off" switch.

[machoneman]

63. No...

The media has reported that many red-state (R) guvs have begged Congress and Trump not to f-with the ACA unless they have a really good replacement in hand. They are very worried over the huge numbers of their constituents who will revolt and vote them out of office if they lose all the benes they now have.

I do believe a bunch up for re-election in the next few years will be swept from office if they destroy the tenets of Obamacare.

[SunSeeker]

7. This does nothing.

With weasel words like "to the maximum extent permitted by law," it is clear it does not change any of the ACA rules laid out in the statute. It just directs administrators to exercise their "discretion," to the extent they have any, to avoid any "burdens." It is a window dressing proclamation to make up for the fact that Trump cannot repeal the ACA on day 1, as he had foolishly promised.

[milestogo]

10. Probably encourages some of the players to push the boundaries

and see what they can get away with. Zero respect for law.

[SunSeeker]

13. They were already doing that in the red states.

Thank God I live in California.

[dionysus]

15. It's trumpian to make an EO like "make it great"

[SunSeeker]

17. Yep. nt

[aggiesal]

21. You remember that child ...

you're carrying on your health insurance policy that's 23 years old?
The provision of the ACA that requires us to insure your child up to
27 years of age is a burden on us Insurance companies,
so we will no longer cover children over 18 years old.
They'll have to buy their own insurance policy.

Thank you very much for your dollars.
Oops! Sorry, we mean business.
Thank you very much for your business.

[SunSeeker]

27. The rule requiring ins. cos. to cover kids up to 26 under parents' policies is still law.

So no matter how burdensome, the insurance companies can't ignore it. The GOP will have to explicitly repeal that rule.

[aggiesal]

33. This EO will allow them to not enforce it. ...

All they have to claim is that "... it's a burden ..."

And they'll do it!

I understand what you're saying, but the insurance companies
will do anything for a buck. They probably already have the actuarial
tables to see if withholding treatment is cheaper than getting sued
and losing.

[Fred Sanders]

22. Yep. Congress passed the law, an EO can not undo it. Window dressing for the deplorables looking in.

[progree]

25. I don't think so - they have plenty of authority to destroy the ACA market

Donald Trump, Tom Price, and the Destruction of Obamacare (On how Trump administration can eviscerate Obamacare without any Congressional action), Newsweek, 1/18/17

As Health and Human Services Secretary, Price has broad authority to grant what are known as “hardship waivers,” which he could use to lift the mandate for large swathes of people, says Larry Levitt, a senior vice president at the research group the Kaiser Family Foundation. That, Levitt says, could “ effectively blow up the individual market,” by allowing healthy people to leave in droves,

Republicans are looking for Price to reign in some of the law’s benefits requirements that insurers find onerous. “That’s a place where Tom Price is going to make a huge difference for America as it relates to their ability to buy more tailor-made insurance,” GOP Senator Bob Corker told reporters at a breakfast earlier this month.

Under Obamacare, all health plans offered on the healthcare exchange or private market had to include a set of ten so-called “essential benefits,” including maternity care, hospitalization and prescription drugs. But the law left the details for what those benefits should include up to HHS. Now, under Price, “they could give states much more latitude in determining the details

More: http://www.newsweek.com/price-obamacare-repeal-trump-ryan-congress-mandate-healthcare-insurance-543834

Let's hope they use their discretion wisely.

[SunSeeker]

29. They always had that authority. That is why the ACA covers fewer people in red states. nt

[progree]

32. Well now the administrators at the federal level are not friendly to Obamacare anymore

so the will and the potential to fuck things over for everybody is much greater.

And the only part the red states had authority over was the Medicaid expansion part. I can't think of anything else in the ACA where states had the discretion to change some aspects of it. Do you?

[Equinox Moon]

8. I heard on Democracy NOW! that grabberman

has "outsourced" his executive agenda to the Heritage Foundation. They have a ton of prepared legislation ready to go for grabberman to sign.

Heritage Foundation, from what I understand, is tea party radical.

Grim...grim.... grim.....

[milestogo]

12. They've been around since 1973.

[lefthandedskyhook]

14. If there is any "easing"

It most likely will mean increased deficit spending. Reagan did this at the wrong economic time and won the hearts of millions

[JudyM]

16. Sec 2 throws the door wide open for his team to make whatever changes they want that don't require

a notice and comment period.

Beyond the bad results that can follow, this can lead to actions from different depts and states that will make everything far more convoluted and create all kinds of conflicting rules and procedures because apparently they don't have to coordinate it at the top!

And he will have the perfect optics of being able to say he eased the burdens of Obamacare on Day 1.

[kacekwl]

18. You know trump has no idea what he signed.

Piles and piles of bullshit for the dummy to sign. Chimp.

[HuskyOffset]

19. I think the first thing that happened

was that the Trump team installed a button labeled "Make Great" on his desk in the oval. If you follow the wires from the button, they go to a machine called the Clusterfuckerator 6000, which does pretty much what you expect. Trump will be pushing that button quite frequently, I expect.

[milestogo]

37. Hence the new Presidential seal:

[Norbert9]

23. Interstate Markets

#4 moves in favor of that. We could end up with one state setting the standard for the country like credit cards and South Dakota.

[DeminPennswoods]

38. They are already allowed under the ACA

Regional markets are already authorized under the ACA. Any 2 or more states can form a market, the states don't even have to be next to each other. So, CA and NY could form a regional market. All states with GOP governors could form a regional market. If all the governors agreed, all 50 states could form a gigantic market.

And small businesses are allowed to form joint markets, too, but not sure what year that is/was supposed to start.

[herding cats]

50. No, they're speaking in terms of how we were screwed over by a change in laws that handed power to

The CC banking industry, I think. At least it fits what I know of the matter.

Look up, "Marquette National Bank of Minneapolis v. First of Omaha Service Corp." and it'll become clearer.

We're in for a very bad exploitation by the GOP here. One they're dressing up in sweet, soft sheeps clothing, but in reality it's a profit shark posed to bite us all in the ass

[herding cats]

52. I know this has been a goal of many in The GOP for a long time, and I agree with you.

This is worrisome. We could all end up with the worst state setting the standard for all of us.

[SCVDem]

28. Time to call Palin

These must be the "Death Panels" she said the ACA would bring.

'Ease the burden' sounds like euthanasia to me.

Just fuck this fuckin' fucker!

[Sunlei]

30. I don't understand what it means. Does it mean insurance Corps aren't allowed to charge premiums?

guess I'll have to wait for one of the smarter Republicans to help him & make excuses for trump and explain what he meant.

[mn9driver]

39. This is the most really amazing executive order

It has words in it. Important words. The best words. No President has ever used words as good as these words. He is making America Great Again by using these incredible words. In an executive order. Fantastic.

[milestogo]

42. But they forgot Trump's new word "carnage".

[marybourg]

40. Chaos, thy name is Trump. nt

[TrollBuster9090]

41. It doesn't look like it actually does anything. No specifics. Just a symbolic chunk of red meat...

...thrown to his crackpot base, who really ARE dumb enough to think it fulfills one of their campaign promises.

"Yep, Trump re-peeled Obummercare on his first day in office! Got rid of that damned thing, leaving us with just the ACA, which I always liked."

[Bernardo de La Paz]

44. Yup. . nt

[Skittles]

48. his base is UNBELIEVABLY stupid

[RobinA]

54. It Does Nothing

To the extent allowed by law I can go out in the street and shoot the next guy who drives by in a car. I can't believe this nonsense. Even for this crew.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

45. "Ease the economic burden" could be taken to mean "make it more affordable".

Creative lawyers and policy wonks might find some fertile ground.

After all, tRump has PROMISED "insurance for all".

Further, it can be used to put the brakes on repeal because, until there is an equivalent replacement, repealing Obamacare will put an economic burden on the country and people. Just one example is higher medical spending due to people using the Emergency room rather than doctors.

[geek tragedy]

47. signal to the insurance companies that they should abandon the exchanges

at their first opportunity since there's an incoherent man-baby in charge now.

[Cryptoad]

49. WTF happen to repealing ObamaCare on Day One???????? nt

[Thor_MN]

53. "Day One" has been redfined as next Monday, he's taking the weekend off.

The crap he signed today is as meaningful as the blank legal pad and sharpie in the hotel lobby - it was a photo op in a pathetic attempt to look legitimate.

[burrowowl]

57. k&R!!!!!!

[smirkymonkey]

59. So fucking hate that guy.

[DeminPennswoods]

60. Seems targeted at Medicaid expansion

The exchanges are pretty straight forward, just mandated coverages that insurance companies can tailor, price and offer as they see fit.

Medicaid expansion, though, isn't. There were GOP-led states, including mine under Corbett, that wanted to have Medicaid with strings attached expansion. HHS did work with these states to grant waivers that allowed it although they nixed the worst excesses. This seems to be where the EO is targeted.

[BumRushDaShow]

66. Thing is

the "mandatory" Medicaid expansion piece was thrown out by the Supreme Court, so those few states like ours, were left with the option to have some variation that had to be approved by HHS via state-federal partnership discussions (but only if the governor was willing to do it at all). Fortunately Corbett was tossed and Wolf put in the full Medicaid expansion.

But because of the way the ACA was written, a state legislature can't torpedo it if the governor wants it. That was something that was significant and is why PA now has full Medicaid expansion despite our GOP-controlled state assembly.

I expect that given the fact that the GOP gerrymandered state seats nationwide (the result being that the GOP could take over state legislatures in states that are purple or even just tipping to blue), those states that had enough to still put in a Democratic governor (like here in PA or Louisiana or North Carolina), can use, and have used that loophole in the past (like KY), and that is probably something they will want to eliminate post haste via an amendment to the law.

[Vinca]

62. I don't know what this order is supposed to mean legally, but the intent seems to be

people with money get to live, people without money get to die.

[lark]

64. Burdens to who?

Burden to rich folks who have to pay the extra taxes? This certainly doesn't affect that, tax issues can't be determined by executive orders. He just does shit and makes up lies about it. Is he so stupid he doesn't realize this does not do a damn thing about the taxes which are at the heart of the repug disapproval? Poor widdle rich folks, still paying a fraction of what they have paid historically in taxes so some poor people don't die. How ridiculous, the poor people dying isn't a burden on drumpf or the other oligarchs because they just don't care about anything but their own personal power and $$. Of course, he could be intending something else, he has such a poor grasp of the English language and he lies all the time, so it's really hard to know what he means.


A friend told me I needed to watch "his" speech, needed to know what he says so know what's going on. I advised that didn't work with him because he was all over all sides of so many issues. Today he's for it, by the afternoon he's against it, he just lies to fit whatever he thinks the people listening to that speech want. I boycotted the inauguration, didn't watch one second, even on video and will not ever watch it. I will not acknowledge him for that office he stole, he is not and will never be my president, just like Bush wasn't when he stole the first election. Sad to say but Putin and drumpfs businesses are running the office now, this is all about his personal profit and getting what russia has promised him for sabotaging the world's defenses against them.

[christx30]

69. Maybe it's people that can't afford premiums,

and Trump's EO will stop them from having to pay the noncompliance penalty? I mean, $695 or 2.5% of income per person can be seen as a burden to the average taxpayer.

[lark]

70. Inability to obtain healthcare is much more burdensome.

Hospital bills can reach $10,000 in 1 day. And if a trauma or heart attack is involved, the costs go up significantly,

[christx30]

72. But if none of that happens,

that's $200 per paycheck you're throwing away. I have insurance because I have a diabetic wife and two austistic children.
We just got over $5000 worth of insulin, and it was $0 out of pocket thanks to my insurance.

My mom doesn't have insurance because she's been out of work for 8 months. She and my dad are barely making it. She shouldn't have to pay $700. That would be stupid. She's a good person. A nurse. Participated in all the marches since Jan 20th. Has done work for Battleground Texas. Campaigned for Hillary. She doesn't deserve a huge bill for being out of work.
So if trump can waive that, I'd be ok with it. It's probably the one thing I agree with him about.

[BumRushDaShow]

65. E.O.s are not law but instructions for the designated executive branch agencies

for how to interpret and/or operate with respect to particular existing laws that impact those agencies.

Someone told someone on the transition team that the President is not legally a dictator and can't unilaterally get rid of a law.

In the case of the ACA, they KNEW that this sort of thing could happen so it was written in such a way as to try to buffer from the sort of nonsense that the GOP tends to excel at... short of completely repealing it (or drastically amending it - which is probably what they are going to try to do). They will also try to continue to attack it in the courts until it gets back to the Supreme Court again, given their victory of having the mandatory Medicaid expansion being torpedoed, helping to kill more people.

[cstanleytech]

71. In reality he just signed an executive order to screw millions of Americans over and the irony

is some of those about to get screwed did it to themselves as they liked the ACA but voted for Trump as he promised to overturn the horrible Obamacare that they were told was horrible but didnt realize that its just a nickname for the ACA which they supported.