Some misconceptions are floating around about what the executive order does and doesn’t do. Let me try to clarify.
As I explained in a post last week, “[a]uthority to implement the ACA … is vested in the Secretaries of HHS, Treasury, and Labor—not the President. In the context of the ACA, an executive order won’t be anything more than a document containing a president’s instructions to his subordinates.”
That’s all this E.O. is. It’s a set of marching orders. It has no legal force. It changes nothing on its own.
And these marching orders are pretty vague. After pruning away the bureaucratese, the executive order tells federal agencies, especially HHS, to do everything they can:
- To eliminate any “fiscal burden on any State” or any “cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden” on individuals and providers.
- To give the states more flexibility.
- To encourage the interstate sale of health insurance.
It remains to be seen how and when these orders will be carried out. But we can make some educated guesses (most of which we could’ve made even in the absence of the executive order).
HENRY KOTULA 