Thursday, September 24, 2020

Trump Claims to Be Able to Guarantee the Coverage of Preexisting Conditions by Fiat

For more than twenty years we debated ways to protect people from preexisting conditions limitations in health insurance. We finally got those protections when the Congress passed, and the President signed (and the Supreme Court upheld), the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.

So, after twenty years of national public policy debate and hard-fought Congressional and Presidential approval, how does Trump conclude he can restore these protections should the Republican Supreme Court suit overturn them, with a simple executive order?

Trump and the Republicans couldn't pass an alternative to Obamacare in 2017 when they controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. But, now he can just sign an executive order and everything is fixed?

He has signed a number of health care related executive orders, including on drug pricing policy, and just about all of them are tied up in the byzantine federal regulatory process, or have faded away.

This is just an election-year gimmick in an attempt to persuade voters that Trump has health care policy under control.

There are a lot of governments in the world that operate by executive fiat. Ours is not one of them.

At least it hasn't been.

Recent Post: The Supreme Court Will Not Wreck Obamacare


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