Trump healthcare orders may have little weight
"Today I'm laying out my vision for the future of American healthcare..."
President Donald Trump pitched his "America First Healthcare Plan" in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday, signing two executive orders on healthcare for Americans that lawyers said carry little weight, as the president seeks to boost his flagging credibility with voters on the hot-button issue of healthcare ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
"The Democrats like to constantly talk about it and yet pre-existing conditions are much safer with us than they are with them," said Trump.
Trump's executive orders were aimed at addressing surprise medical bills and ensuring Americans with pre-existing conditions would retain healthcare coverage, even as his own administration seeks to strike down the Affordable Care Act, which protects that very right.
Some lawyers expressed skepticism that Trump had the authority to make such a move by executive order.
University of Michigan law school professor Nicholas Bagley told Reuters: "His statements have no more legal weight than a tweet."
In June, the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the Obamacare law that added millions to the healthcare safety net, a move that could scrap coverage in the middle of a national health crisis.
With Trump poised to add a conservative justice to fill the seat of liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a new 6-3 conservative majority could provide the decisive vote to strike down his predecessor's signature healthcare law.
Trump lags his Democratic rival Joe Biden in national opinion polls, especially on the question of who would better handle healthcare.
At his event in Charlotte, Trump promised to send seniors $200 drug discount cards before the election and that they'd soon receive them in the mail.
