President Donald Trump directed government agencies on Friday to freeze regulations and take steps to weaken Obamacare, using his first hours in the White House to make good on a campaign promise to start dismantling his predecessor's healthcare law.
Heading into the Oval Office shortly after the conclusion of his inaugural parade, Trump signed an order on the Affordable Care Act that urged government departments to "waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation" of provisions that imposed fiscal burdens on states, companies or individuals.
It also called for efforts to give states greater flexibility in implementing healthcare programs while developing "a free and open market in interstate commerce for the offering of healthcare services and health insurance."
This of course is just the first salvo in what will surely be an unrelenting attack and repeal of Obamacare.
While this fist order only allows agencies to waive, defer, grant exemptions from or delay ACA rules, it also opens the door for insurance companies to start tailoring back on the coverage they provide, which would likely target women first, and then of course eventually include those with a preexisting condition.
It will also undermine the mandate, without which this law simply cannot survive.
And this is BEFORE the Congress starts to really tear the law apart, after which we will either all be on our own or forced to choose an incredibly poor plan that the Republican's insurance company donors helped to write for them.
Which means that Trump may be facing backlash from folks like these coal country folks who never really believed he would take away their health insurance.
At some point the number of former Trump supporters showing up in street protests may outnumber the liberals and HIllary supporters.
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