Donald Trump Executive Order Changes US Health Insurance Landscape

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US President Donald Trump has signed his first executive order at the Oval Office. The order directs the federal agencies to ease the financial and regulatory burdens associated with the Obamacare law (also known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA)). President Trump's order asks the agencies to "waive, defer, grant ­exemptions from or delay" any part of the law that imposes a financial or regulatory burden on those affected by it. The order is going to affect insurers, drug companies, hospitals, doctors as well as consumers.

Trump has made it clear that even before the Republicans repeal the Obamacare law enacted in 2010, the new administration will move swiftly to unwind the elements that rule the health insurance markets right now. According to the Washington Post, the Affordable Care Act had made it mandatory for the Americans to sign up for health insurance plans with essential benefits or pay an annual penalty. Pulling back the law is going to affect how many people sign up for the basic health plans, whose open enrollment is going to end on Jan. 31, 2017. It is also going to affect the number of companies that decide to participate in the affordable health insurance marketplaces next year.

The New York Times accused the Trump-led Republican government is trying to pull up a con by repealing the Affordable Care Act. It would leave millions of people without the medical care and healthcare services they need. Tom Price, Trump's choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, seems to be confused about the healthcare policy too. In the Senate Committee hearing on Jan. 18, 2017, he first said that policies that cover medical treatment in catastrophic cases were "woefully inadequate". The deductibles of such policies are around $14,000 for family coverage. A few minutes later, Price condemned Obamacare policies with deductibles of $6,000 to $12,000 for being too expensive for those who earn around $30,000 to $50,000 per annum.

Teresa Miller, Pennsylvania's insurance commissioner, revealed on Saturday that some insurers on her state's exchange have indicated that they might withdraw from the ACA's exchanges in 2017. It would mean that the consumers would no longer receive federal subsidies that make health coverage affordable for them. About two-thirds of all counties in the U.S. have just two insurers or less in the federal marketplace. The new policy might worsen the situation in the near future.

The U.S. health insurance market is shaky. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently issued a report that repealing the Obamacare law without enacting an alternative policy will mean that 32 million Americans will lose their health insurance coverage. "President Trump has said that people will not go without coverage," Kellyanne Conway, a top adviser to the new president, said in an NBC interview. "There will be ways for people to access affordable, quality health insurance if they'd like to get it," she said later.