Wasting precious little time, Trump returned from the evening's inaugural ceremonies and got straight to work in the Oval Office signing his first executive order to roll back portions of Obamacare. While details are scarce, per CNN, press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters the action was meant "to ease the burden of Obamacare as we transition from repeal and replace.
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JUST IN: Pres. Trump signs documents allowing retired Generals Mattis and Kelly to be sworn into Cabinet and an executive order on Obamacare pic.twitter.com/yNUQe9vuJe
— ABC News (@ABC)
Executive order just signed by @POTUS relates to #Obamacare. pic.twitter.com/dTaX6QEZBS
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA)
Meanwhile, Trump's Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, has also sent a memo to all federal agencies to initiate an immediate freeze on all new regulations.
Press secy @seanspicer also says WH Chief of Staff Reince Priebus directing federal agencies to initiate immediate regulatory freeze.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller)
As Bloomberg notes, The Congressional Budget Office said in a Jan. 17 report that as many as 32 million Americans would lose their insurance coverage over 10 years if the health law is repealed without an alternative policy in place.
Trump told the Washington Post that a replacement plan will provide "insurance for verybody," and he said in a Jan. 11 news conference that he wanted repeal and a replacement policy to be passed "essentially simultaneously."
Changes to the structure of health plans under the law, such as what benefits insurers are required to offer or how much they can charge, could be made through administrative actions at the Department of Health and Human Services or by rewriting regulations.
And here is the brief statement from Sean Spicer:
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As someone once told Republicans: "There are consequences to elections."
