The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) proposed a rule on Monday that would expand patients’ access to health care sharing ministries and direct primary care.

The IRS’s proposal would allow for health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) to subsidize employees’ direct primary care (DPC) and healthcare sharing ministries (HCSMs).

The IRS rule builds off of President Donald Trump’s executive order 13,877, which directs Department of the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to treat direct primary care arrangements and healthcare sharing ministries as “eligible medical expenses.” Treating these healthcare services as medical expenses allow employers to subsidize employees’ DPCs and HCSMs similarly to an employer-sponsored health insurance plan.

Brian Blase, a former Donald Trump administration staffer, praised the order for expanding Americans’ healthcare options.

“IRS’s rule creates greater tax equity among health coverages by allowing people to use an HRA or HSA toward the purchase of a direct primary care arrangement or a health sharing ministry plan, which are good options for many people,” Blase said.

However, he cautioned that the “IRS feels it is limited from allowing people with those coverages to contribute to an HSA, which reduces the benefit of the rule. ”

One former Barack Obama administration staffer attacked the rule.

Jason Levitis, a senior fellow at Yale Law School who helped implement Obamacare at the Obama Treasury Department, likened the proposal to short-term health insurance plans, AHPs, which offer less expensive healthcare coverage compared to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans.

He said, “It’s ironic to give them tax benefits for health insurance given that federal and state laws deem them non-insurance so as to exempt them from insurance regulation.”

“But it’s consistent with what we’ve seen from this Administration with short-term plans, HRAs, AHPs and 1332: stretching the law to extend new protections to health care products that may not protect consumers,” Levitis added.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.