NPR

6 Changes The Trump Administration Can Still Make To Obamacare

The Republican overhaul bill died, but the health care drama continues. There are lots of ways the administration can change the Affordable Care Act, without congressional approval.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price at a March 17 news conference with Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio.

After seven years of trying, Republicans failed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act last week.

That doesn't mean the health care drama is over, though. House Speaker Paul Ryan this week told donors that the party is "going to keep getting at this thing," according to the Washington Post.

But whatever Ryan and his colleagues manage to do, plenty could still change in the Affordable Care Act. Last week's failed bill, after all, was only one part of the GOP's plan.

The second part — making changes to regulations and how Obamacare is administered — doesn't even require Congress' help. And those changes could make or break the health law.

"There are things the Trump administration might do that could prop up the markets, and there are things they might do that could help the markets explode, if that's what they want to happen," says Cynthia Cox, who studies Obamacare's effects on private insurance at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Here are a few possible changes:

1. Cut off

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