Trump to Scrap Critical Health Care Subsidies, Hitting Obamacare Again
“With these actions,” Mr. Trump said at a White House ceremony, “we are moving toward lower costs
and more options in the health care market, and taking crucial steps toward saving the American people from the nightmare of Obamacare.”
“This is going to be something that millions and millions of people will be signing
up for,” the president predicted, “and they’re going to be very happy.”
But many patients, doctors, hospital executives and state insurance regulators were not so happy.
It concluded that “Congress needs to repeal and replace the disastrous Obamacare law and provide real relief to the American people.”
In a joint statement, the top Democrats in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York
and Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said Mr. Trump had “apparently decided to punish the American people for his inability to improve our health care system.”
“It is a spiteful act of vast, pointless sabotage leveled at working families and the middle class in every corner of America,” they said.
The White House said that a broader interpretation of federal law — the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 — “could potentially
allow employers in the same line of business anywhere in the country to join together to offer health care coverage to their employees.”
The order won applause from potential sponsors of association health plans, including the National Federation of Independent Business, the National Restaurant Association, the U. S. Chamber of Commerce
and Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade group for the construction industry.