⁍ Trump will sign an executive order aimed at ensuring Americans with pre-existing conditions retain healthcare coverage.

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⁍ His own administration seeks to strike down the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, which protects the same right.

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⁍ But some lawyers expressed skepticism that Trump had the authority to make the move via executive order.

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⁍ ‘It’s as if I was walking around with a memo that was titled ‘Executive Order,’ and claimed that the policy of the United States is that everybody gets a cheeseburger on Tuesdays,’ said Nicholas Bagley, a professor at University of Michigan’s law school.

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– President Trump on Thursday plans to issue two executive orders that Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar says will protect people with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage, Reuters reports. “If the Supreme Court strikes down all or a large part of the Affordable Care Act, what the president is making clear in this executive order is that it is the policy of the United States that people who suffer from pre-existing conditions will be protected against those pre-existing conditions in their insurance coverage,” Azar says. Azar says Trump will also direct Azar to work with Congress to pass legislation banning surprise medical bills by early next year. Azar says Trump’s first executive order will protect people with pre-existing conditions from being denied coverage if the Affordable Care Act is struck down. Azar says Trump will also direct Azar to explore executive action if Congress fails to pass legislation banning surprise medical bills. University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley says Trump’s statements “have no more legal weight than a tweet.” “It’s as if I was walking around with a memo that was titled ‘Executive Order,’ and claimed that the policy of the United States is that everybody gets a cheeseburger on Tuesdays,” Bagley tells Reuters.