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WASHINGTON, Oct. 12-- U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order on Thursday to gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, after GOP-controlled Congress repeatedly failed to repeal or replace it. Suggesting that premiums under Obamacare "have gone skyrocketing," Trump labeled his executive order as "first steps to providing millions of Americans with Obamacare relief" before signing the document at the Roosevelt Room of the White House. Though the executive order won't be able to wipe away the country's health care reform law, the president can use it to direct how the law is carried out. The order, according to Trump, asks several government departments to take action to "increase competition, increase choice, and increase access to lower-priced, high-quality healthcare options" while costing the U.S. government "virtually nothing." The Trump order proposes to allow more small businesses to form associations to buy affordable and competitive health insurance and expand these associations and health care plans across state line so as to create what the president called tremendous competition and low prices. Besides, Trump said the administration will explore ways to make short-term limited duration insurance "more widely available," a kind of health insurance policies not allowed to last more than three months under Obamacare rules. He also instructed to find ways to allow more businesses to use tax-free health reimbursement arrangements to compensate their employees for their healthcare expenses. | 
