US President Donald Trump
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch / UPI / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kevin Dietsch / UPI / Bloomberg
President Donald Trump said he would “pursue” an executive order over the next two weeks requiring health insurance companies to cover the existing terms for all customers.
“That’s a big thing,” he told reporters at his golf club Friday night in Bedminster, New Jersey. “We have to cover the existing circumstances. This has never been done before, but it is time for the people of our country to be well represented and well cared for. ”
Obamacare, which is seeking to overturn the Trump administration in court, protects patients with pre-existing conditions.
The announcement was one of several executive actions that Trump said he was ready to take. He also said he was ready to sign executive action to provide extended unemployment benefits, a temporary tax cut, exclusion protection and student loan relief – if the administration can not agree on an incentive package with Democrats.
Trump has long promised a comprehensive health plan, but never delivered. Last month, Trump unveiled a full health plan that would have arrived earlier this week, but did not.
Poll Numbers
Trump has regularly committed to protecting people with pre-existing circumstances, without saying how – a promise contrary to Republican pressure to invalidate Obamacare.
Trump continues to wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic, which has driven its election numbers and focused more attention on the fragility of insurance by employers in the US. Polls left him behind Democrat Joe Biden nationally and in key states. Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in 2018, focusing heavily on health care.
(Updates with Obamacare in third member.)
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