Libertarian supporters of Donald Trump have a feather in their caps after today’s executive order signing, a move that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) calls “the biggest free-market reform of health care in a generation.”
“They’ll be able to buy, they’ll be able to cross state lines, and they will be able to get great competitive healthcare, and it will cost the United States nothing,” Trump said as he addressed reporters today before signing the executive order.
Paul says that he has been working for nine months with Trump behind the scenes to craft this executive order. While Paul is not typically a proponent of executive action, he stands behind Trump in this particular instance because it will provide more choices to consumers and cut at the heart of centralized power and bureaucratic regulations.
“I’m very glad to be a part of this and I really want to commend the president for having the boldness and the leadership and the foresight to get this done,” Paul said.
Trump’s executive order commands the Labor, Health and Human Services and Treasury departments to develop a new regulatory regime in order to increase access to association health plans by permitting more employers to be eligible for them. Under Trump’s new reform, association health plans to small businesses will become larger, and plans can be sold across state lines. Predictably, Democrats are up in arms about consumers having more choices.
“With one signature, President Trump is now jeopardizing the health security of millions of Americans,” Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) said in a statement. “The end result will be that costs for everyone else will soar, and ultimately, insurance markets that provide real coverage with real protections will collapse. Welcome to Trumpcare.”
Nevertheless, Trump is undaunted by the critics. He is standing with Rand proudly, and believes that the ideas championed by Sen. Paul will give Americans relief from their healthcare woes.
“When you got Rand Paul on your side, it has to be positive,” Trump said.
I think Rand is pretty savy as is Trump. This is a good thing for most Americans. Trump should bring Rand into his adminstration.
HHS Secretary, or bring in Ron if he’s willing to for his age.
I’m not sure about HHS not because I don’t think Rand would be good but because you’ve already got one of the better people in the administration there already, Dr. Ben Carson. If Tillerson leaves, put him in as Secretary of state.
I partly agree, but keep Rand in the Senate. We can’t afford to loose any decent Senators. We only have 3 or 4.
About time! Quit playing with the NFL and do your job!
Yeah but is executive order the best way to go about it?