Trump signs executive order to ease Obamacare rules

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that aims to make lower-premium plans more widely available, including sales of cheaper policies with fewer benefits and fewer protections for consumers.

The order eases restrictions that the Affordable Care Act (placed on the individual health insurance market).

“This order takes first steps to make it easier for businesses to help their workers afford high-quality and more flexible healthcare through reimbursement accounts,” Trump said.

“With these actions, we are moving toward lower costs and more options in the healthcare market and taking crucial steps towards saving the American people from the nightmare of Obamacare,” he added.

The order broadly tasks the administration with developing policies to increase health care competition and choice in order to improve the quality of health care and lower prices, CNN reported.

Annoyed by the failure of a Republican-controlled Congress to repeal and replace Obamacare, Trump signed the order as a part of his efforts to dismantle Obamacare.

According to reports, most of the changes to the current system will not come until federal agencies adopt regulations, after giving public an opportunity to make comments -- a process that could take months.

Earlier in September, the Republican Senate did not vote on the Graham-Cassidy Bill to repeal ‘Obamacare’, an affordable health insurance introduced by former US President Barack Obama.

The party failed to win adequate support from its own senators.

Many Republicans hadn’t even taken a public position on this revised Republican healthcare bill.

Trump had vowed during the 2016 election campaign to scrap Obamacare.

Image: Demonstrators protest in front of the US Capitol. The new order signed by Trump is a part of his efforts to dismantle Obamacare. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters