With a Republican-controlled Congress unable to pass a healthcare bill, Donald Trump has said he will take matters into his own hands by signing an order – “probably this week” – to allow people to buy stripped-down health insurance policies across state lines.

The action could further undermine Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans in Congress have repeatedly failed to repeal and replace.

While offering few details about the plan, Mr Trump said people will be able to “get great competitive healthcare, and it will cost the United States nothing.”

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

“With Congress the way it is, I decided to take it upon myself,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

“So we'll be announcing that soon as far as the signing's concerned, but it's largely worked out,” the President added.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Mr Trump will make his announcement “by the end of Friday.”

The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the President would direct the Labour Department to spur the sale of insurance across state lines through the use of “association health plans”.

The expected order would allow small businesses and individuals to band together as associations to buy health insurance plans that would be exempt from some Obamacare requirements. These include mandatory coverage for 10 essential health benefits such as maternity and newborn care, prescription drugs and mental health treatment.

Republicans have long supported the idea to allow coverage to be sold across state lines, saying this would be the most effective way to promote competition among health insurers – particularly in areas where people buying coverage on their own only have one insurer selling plans.

Shape Created with Sketch. Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... Show all 27 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Donald Trump's least presidential moments so far... 1/27 Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The President's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty 2/27 Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the President has faced difficulty in raising the required $5 billion at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and congress' refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty 3/27 Joked about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet on November 13, the President mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars 4/27 Coloured in the US flag wrong The President coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty 5/27 Railing against the Mueller investigation The President has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters 6/27 Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Mr. Trump Getty 7/27 Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the President claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it wouldn't have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters 8/27 Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The President announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 9/27 Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the President made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters 10/27 Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the President reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Mr. Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape." Reuters 11/27 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Reuters 12/27 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago Getty 13/27 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far Getty 14/27 The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty 15/27 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP 16/27 Calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea 17/27 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty 18/27 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no MSNBC 19/27 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP 20/27 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet 21/27 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news” 22/27 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty 23/27 Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters 24/27 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters 25/27 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) 26/27 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement Getty 27/27 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t, the day was very dreary Reuters 1/27 Taking plenty of "Executive Time" The President's official schedule sets aside the hours from 8 to 11am daily for "Executive Time". Further intermittent periods of "Executive Time" are scheduled throughout any given day, ranging from 15 minutes to 3 hours. His duties in these hours have not been officially disclosed, though Axios reports that he spends them watching TV, reading the newspapers and tweeting Getty 2/27 Shutdown the government for over a month in an effort to secure funding for his wall With Mexico declining to pay for the wall, the President has faced difficulty in raising the required $5 billion at home. Due to his demand that the money for the wall be included in the budget, and congress' refusal, the government partially shut down on 22 December 2018. It remained shut for over a month, the longest period in history Getty 3/27 Joked about the Nazi occupation of France to President Macron In this tweet on November 13, the President mocks Emmanuel Macron's suggestion of a "true, European army" by invoking the conflict between France and Germany in the world wars 4/27 Coloured in the US flag wrong The President coloured in the US flag wrongly during a visit to a children's hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He added a blue stripe where in tradition, and statute, there have been only white and red stripes AFP/Getty 5/27 Railing against the Mueller investigation The President has repeatedly claimed that the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, is a "rigged witch hunt" Reuters 6/27 Contradicting a US intelligence report on Russian meddling in the presence of Vladimir Putin In the press conference that followed his landmark meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Trump stated that he saw no reason why Russia would have meddled in the 2016 US election. This contradicted a 2017 report by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence that found evidence of Russian interference in favour of Mr. Trump Getty 7/27 Contradicting his contradiction of a US intelligence report on Russian meddling Following furious backlash in the US, the President claimed that he meant to say that he saw no reason why it wouldn't have been Russia who meddled in the 2016 US election. As to why he would have intended to use such bizarre phrasing, he did not comment Reuters 8/27 Firing a Secretary of State over Twitter The President announced on Twitter that he was appointing Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, much to the surprise of then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson 9/27 Quoting a catchphrase from a reality TV show when discussing police brutality While addressing the issue of black athletes not standing for the national anthem in protest of police brutality, the President made reference to his catchphrase from reality TV show "The Apprentice": you're fired! Reuters 10/27 Calling African nations "S***hole Countries" Ever one for diplomacy, the President reportedly referred to African nations as "s***hole countries". Asked to confirm this when meeting with Nigeria's President Buhari, Mr. Trump stated that there are "some countries that are in very bad shape." Reuters 11/27 Defending Russian President Vladimir Putin Donald Trump appeared to equate US foreign actions to those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “There are a lot of killers. You think our country’s so innocent?” Reuters 12/27 Asked for people to 'pray' for Arnold Schwarzenegger At the National Prayer Breakfast, Donald Trump couldn’t help but to ask for prayers for the ratings on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s show to be good. Schwarzenegger took over as host of “The Apprentice” — which buoyed Mr Trump’s celebrity status years ago Getty 13/27 Hanging up on Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull Early in his presidency, Donald Trump reportedly hung up the phone on Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after the foreign leader angered him over refugee plans. Mr Trump later said that it was the “worst call” he had had so far Getty 14/27 The 'Muslim ban' Perhaps one of his most controversial policies while acting as president, Donald Trump’s travel ban targeting predominantly Muslim countries has bought him a lot of criticism. The bans were immediately protested, and judges initially blocked their implementation. The Supreme Court later sided with the administration’s argument that the ban was developed out of concern for US security Getty 15/27 Praising crowd size while touring Hurricane Harvey damage After Hurricane Harvey ravaged southeastern Texas, Donald Trump paid the area a visit. While his response to the disaster in Houston was generally applauded, the President picked up some flack when he gave a speech outside Houston (he reportedly did not visit disaster zones), and praised the size of the crowds there AP 16/27 Calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 'Little Rocket Man' During his first-ever speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Donald Trump tried out a new nickname for North Korea leader Kim Jong-un: Rocket Man. He later tweaked it to be “little Rocket Man” as the two feuded, and threatened each other with nuclear war. During that speech, he also threatened to totally annihilate North Korea 17/27 Attacking Sadiq Khan following London Bridge terror attack After the attack on the London Bridge, Donald Trump lashed out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, criticizing Mr Khan for saying there was “no reason to be alarmed” after the attack. Mr Trump was taking the comments out of context, as Mr Khan was simply saying that the police had everything under control Getty 18/27 Claimed presenter Mika Brezinkski was 'bleeding from the face' Never one not to mock his enemies, Donald Trump mocked MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski, saying that she and co-host Joe Scarborough had approached him before his inauguration asking to “join” him. He noted that she was “bleeding badly from a face-lift” at the time, and that he said no MSNBC 19/27 Claiming the blame for Charlottesville was on 'both sides' Trump refused to condemn far-right extremists involved in violence at 'the march for the right' protests in Charlottesville, even after the murder of counter protester Heather Heyer AP 20/27 Retweeted cartoon of CNN being hit by a 'Trump train' Donald Trump retweeted a cartoon showing a Trump-branded train running over a person whose body and head were replaced by a CNN avatar. He later deleted the retweet 21/27 Tweeting about 'slamming' CNN Donald Trump caught some flack when he tweeted a video showing him wrestling down an individual whose head had been replaced by a CNN avatar. Mr Trump has singled CNN out in particular with his chants of “fake news” 22/27 Firing head of the FBI, James Comey Donald Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey landed him with a federal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election that has caused many a headache for the White House. The White House initially said that the decision was made after consultation from the Justice Department. Then Mr Trump himself said that he had decided to fire him in part because he wanted the Russia investigation Mr Comey was conducting to stop Getty 23/27 Not realising being president would be 'hard' Just three months into his presidency, Donald Trump admitted that being president is harder than he thought it would be. Though Mr Trump insisted on the 2016 campaign trail that doing the job would be easy for him, he admitted in an interview that living in the White House is harder than running a business empire Reuters 24/27 Accusing Obama of wiretapping him Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of wire tapping him on twitter. The Justice Department later clarified: Mr Obama had not, in fact, done so Reuters 25/27 Claiming there had been 3 million 'illegal votes' Donald Trump was never very happy about losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by 2.8 million ballots. So, he and White House voter-fraud commissioner Kris Kobach have claimed that anywhere between three and five million people voted illegally during the 2016 election. Conveniently, he says that all of those illegal votes went to Ms Clinton. (There is no evidence to support that level of widespread voter fraud.) 26/27 Leaving Jews out of the Holocaust memorial statement Just days after taking office, Donald Trump’s White House issued a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, but didn’t mention “jews” or even the word “jewish” in the written statement Getty 27/27 Anger over Inauguration crowd size Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd was visibly, and noticeably, smaller than that of his predecessor, Barack Obama. But, he really wanted to have had the largest crowd on record. So, he praised it as the biggest crowd ever. Relatedly, Mr Trump also claimed that it stopped raining in Washington at the moment he was inaugurated. It didn’t, the day was very dreary Reuters

Meanwhile, Democrats argue that the order could potentially undermine the consumer protections laid out in the ACA.

The association health plans could be sold in a state that doesn't require policies to provide as many benefits as other states. These health insurance policies are anticipated to be cheaper than those that provide the full range of medical coverage required under Obamacare, potentially making them attractive to people across state lines.

But experts have questioned Mr Trump's authority to issue such an order that would exempt some plans but not others from Obamacare rules. By issuing an executive order on the matter instead of pursuing change through legislation, Mr Trump could open up the administration to legal challenges from Democratic state attorneys general.

The stripped-down insurance policies allowed under the order are likely to entice young and healthy people away from the individual insurance markets created by the ACA. That could further destabilise those markets because only the sickest people would likely continue purchasing insurance on the exchanges.

If this happens, experts expect premiums to rise rapidly, effectively eroding the law's protection that people with pre-existing medical conditions cannot be charged more.

Mr Trump's decision to issue an executive order on healthcare is another example of his growing impatience with Congress, particularly the Senate, for not being able to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace his predecessor's healthcare law.

But while Republicans in the Senate haven't been able to agree on legislation that would overhaul Obamacare, Mr Trump has already attacked the law through a series or regulatory and administrative measures.

The administration has slashed the ACA advertising budget, halved the open enrollment period and cut funding to groups that help sign people up for insurance under the law.

His expected order this week is viewed by many to be his next action against the ACA.

Mr Trump had hinted earlier on Tuesday that he would sign an executive order on the issue, tweeting: “Since Congress can’t get its act together on HealthCare, I will be using the power of the pen to give great HealthCare to many people – FAST”.

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