Trump says likely to sign new healthcare order this week

WASHINGTON- 10 October 2017:President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would sign a measure, likely this week, to allow people in the United States to buy healthcare across state lines.

"They'll be able to buy, they'll be able to cross state lines and they will get great competitive healthcare, and it will cost the United States nothing," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

"With Congress the way it is, I decided to take it upon myself, so we'll be announcing that soon as far as the signing's concerned, but it's largely worked out," he said.

Republicans in Congress have failed to make good on Trump's campaign promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, also known as Obamacare.

Trump has suggested before that he was eying an executive order that would allow individuals to purchase insurance across state lines through so-called health associations, which Republican Senator Rand Paul has advocated.