Trump is about to start undercutting Obamacare by relaxing insurance rules

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U.S. President Donald Trump makes a statement on health care while standing with ‘victims of Obamacare’ at The White House on July 24, 2017 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order on Thursday as a new step to weakening the Affordable Care Act, according to reports from The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

And as part of that move, Trump will instruct agencies to allow more sales of cheaper — and less comprehensive — health plans, the Journal said.

The act will push federal agencies to take actions that aim to increase competition in the insurance markets, two White House senior officials told the Journal in an interview, according to the report.

Those alternative protection arrangements are likely to provide greater choice for consumers, but could come at an expense, the report said. That is, younger and healthier customers will benefit from more affordable health plans with less coverage, but that will raise costs for sicker people, the Journal reported.

Democrats and some state regulators are warning, according to the Times, that Trump’s expected relaxation of standards would ultimately destabilize insurance marketplaces created under Obamacare.

For more on Trump’s anticipated move, see the Wall Street Journal’s report.

And here’s what The New York Times had to say about the upcoming order.