An America-First Healthcare Plan
Record date: 2020-10-01
Executive Order 13951 of September 24, 2020 An America-First Healthcare Plan By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1 . Purpose. Since January 20, 2017, my Administration has been committed to the goal of bringing great healthcare to the American people and putting patients first. To that end, my Administration has taken monumental steps to improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare in the United States. (a) My Administration has
What this record contains
- Federal Register document
- 2020-21914
- Publication date
- 2020-10-01
- Citation
- 85 FR 62179
- Issuing office
- Executive Office of the President
Official record excerpt
Executive Order 13951 of September 24, 2020 An America-First Healthcare Plan By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1 . Purpose. Since January 20, 2017, my Administration has been committed to the goal of bringing great healthcare to the American people and putting patients first. To that end, my Administration has taken monumental steps to improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare in the United States. (a) My Administration has been committed to restoring choice and control to the American patient. On December 22, 2017, I signed into law the repeal of the burdensome individual-mandate penalty, liberating millions of low-income Americans from a tax that penalized them for not purchasing health-insurance coverage they did not want or could not afford. Through Executive Order 13813 of October 12, 2017 (Promoting Healthcare Choice and Competition Across the United States), my Administration has expanded coverage options for millions of Americans in several ways. My Administration increased the availability of renewable short-term, limited-duration healthcare plans, providing options that are up to 60 percent cheaper than the least expensive alternatives under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and are projected to cover 500,000 individuals who would otherwise be uninsured. My Administration expanded health reimbursement arrangements, which have been projected by the Department of the Treasury to reach 800,000 businesses and over 11 million employees and to expand coverage to more than 800,000 individuals who would otherwise be uninsured. My Administration also issued a rule to increase the availability of association health plans for small businesses, which, upon implementation of the rule, are projected to cover up to 400,000 previously uninsured individuals for on average 30 percent less cost. As set forth in the Economic Report of the President (February 2020), my Administration's expansion of health savings accounts will further help millions of Americans pay for health expenditures by allowing them to save more of their own money free from Federal taxation, and will especially help Americans with chronic conditions who now have more flexibility to enroll in plans that fit their complicated care needs and can be paired with a tax-advantaged account. At the beginning of the current COVID-19 pandemic, my Administration acted to dramatically increase the accessibility and availability of telehealth services for Medicare beneficiaries, enabling millions of individuals to use these services. Pursuant to Executive Order 13941 of August 3, 2020 (Improving Rural Health and Telehealth Access), the Secretary of Health and Human Services will make permanent many of the new policies that improve the accessibility and availability of telehealth services. In addition, pursuant to that order, the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture will develop and implement a strategy to improve the physical and communications healthcare infrastructure available to rural Americans. Through our State Relief and Empowerment Waivers, my Administration has given States additional health-insurance flexibility, which has expanded health-insurance coverage options for consumers and lowered costs for patients. These waivers allow States to move away from the ACA's rigid ( printed page 62180) structure and are estimated to have lowered premiums by approximately 11 percent in Wisconsin, 20 percent in Minnesota, and 43 percent in Maryland. Due to actions my Administration took, like the State Relief and Empowerment Waivers, after years of dwindling choices and escalating prices, plan options for consumers increased and for 2019, for the first time ever, benchmark premiums actually decreased on Healthcare.gov. For 2020, the average benchmark premium dropped by nearly 4 percent. After the prior Administration spent tens of billions of dollars creating electronic health records systems unable to accurately or effectively record and communicate patient data, my Administration has paved the way for a new wave of innovation to allow patients to safely send their own medical records to care providers of their choosing. My Patients over Paperwork initiative has cut red tape for doctors and nurses so they can spend more time with their patients, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has estimated to save over 40 million hours of wasted time for providers and
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