Washington, DC
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Congressman Richard Neal, D-Springfield, called on the federal officials Wednesday to review the implementation and impacts of President Donald Trump’s recent Affordable Care Act executive order — a measure which the Democrats argued aims to “sabotage” the controversial health care law.
With sign ups now underway for 2018 coverage under the ACA, Warren and Neal penned a letter to the inspectors general from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury urging them to examine Trump’s Oct. 12 executive order.
Contending that the order required secretaries from the three agencies to take actions to undermine the law known as Obamacare, including policy changes that they argued would make health insurance more expensive and less effective, the Massachusetts Democrats raised concerns that the measure could violate various federal and state laws.
“The actions required under the October 2017 executive order would require novel interpretations of these laws, or require agencies to toss aside years of established precedents regarding how these laws and rules are interpreted — placing administration officials at risk of violating both the letter and spirit of the laws that they have pledged to uphold,” they wrote in their letter.
“Since taking office, President Trump and his administration have made multiple policy changes that are designed to undermine the ACA marketplace: ending cost-sharing reductions that help limit premium increases; reducing the length of the open enrollment period; eliminating funding for ACA enrollment outreach and education and more,” the letter continued. “The new executive order raises more questions about the intent of the administration and the potential impacts on affordable health care coverage of administration action.”
Warren and Neal specifically urged the inspectors general to assess and analyze: the legal basis for actions the Labor, Treasury or Health and Human Services departments take under the executive order; the procedures used to justify actions under the order; and whether the agencies determined the extent to which their actions could reduce ACA coverage and increase health insurance premiums costs in advance of taking action.
The letter came just weeks after Neal condemned Trump for signing the executive order, which reportedly permits an overhaul to federal regulations allowing for health insurance plans that don’t have to comply with certain ACA consumer protections and benefit rules.
Neal, the top Democrat on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, blasted the measure as “more of the same sabotage and undermining that we have come to expect from President Trump and congressional Republicans on health care.”
Despite criticism the measure garnered from Neal and other Democrats, Trump contended that the order’s language allowing Americans to purchase health insurance across state lines “will create a truly competitive national marketplace that will bring costs way down and provide far better care.”
