President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order later this week that would allow people to pool together and purchase group insurance plans, according to The New York Times.
Association health plans allow groups such as community organizations, churches or professional associations to purchase health plans together. Many insurance companies oppose this kind of pooled purchase, as they argue the plans take healthy patients out of the individual markets.
The executive order is the first step in President Trump's plan to issue another directive that would allow people to purchase insurance across state lines, though it is still unclear if he has the authority to do so.
"I am considering an executive order on associations, and that will take care of a tremendous number of people with regard to health care," President Trump said late September, according to The New York Times. "I'll probably be signing a very major executive order where people can go out, cross state lines, do lots of things, and buy their own health care…It's going to cover a lot of territory and a lot of people — millions of people."
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