Trump signs executive orders in bid to undermine Obamacare

US doctors’ groups have condemned a series of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump aimed at undermining the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”), which they said would bring “dramatic, if not catastrophic, increases in premiums across the country.”1

Frustrated after the Senate voted three times against repealing Obamacare, Trump signed an order on 12 October to increase access to association health plans, a class of insurance not bound by Obamacare’s rules on coverage. These plans typically offer patchier coverage at lower premiums and are expected to lure younger, healthier customers away from the Obamacare exchanges, forcing insurers on those exchanges to cope with older, sicker risk pools that will drive up premiums. …