Last Wednesday, Vice President-elect Mike Pence told House Republicans that President-elect Donald Trump is ready to sign executive orders when he takes office that would enable an orderly transition away from ObamaCare, even as Congress begins to debate alternatives and replacements.

Both Affordable Care Act (ACA) opponents and supporters tended to exaggerate how much immediate harm Trump would do to the outgoing Obama administration’s legacy healthcare program.

The new president certainly “could” swing a wrecking ball against what remains of the troubled effort to expand insurance coverage under tighter federal government control and substantial taxpayer subsidies. His toolkit of potential executive branch actions is large and varied, but it is not unlimited. The more important questions involve how Trump wants to utilize those powers, and for what objectives.

With patience and care, Trump could initiate new formal rulemaking to partially revise or reverse older, existing regulations, and to create new ones.

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