PresidentDonald Trumpstill hasn’t managed to repeal Obamacare, so he’s working hard to ruin it instead.

Fresh offthe collapse of the GOP Congress’ campaignto repeal theAffordable Care Act, Trump is eyeing unilateral actions to weaken the law’s health insurance program and taking steps to undermine the upcoming enrollment season.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Trump said he’s planning to issue “an executive order on associations” ― a reference, most likely, to so-called association health plans, through which small businesses and in some cases individuals buy health insurance as a group. It’s possible that the federal government could allow some people to get cheaper, less generous coverage through these associations ― but only by taking healthy, working-age people out of the rest of the insurance market, destabilizing it and leading to higher costs for others.

And the Trump administration ispulling backon the Department of Health and Human Services’ efforts to promote health insurance enrollment on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges viaHealthCare.gov. This is the latest move the administration has taken to reduce federal support for public education and sign-up assistance for the open enrollment season that begins Nov. 1 and ends Dec. 15.

These things fit into a broader pattern, dating tobefore Trump’s inauguration, of sabotaging the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces through action and inaction. Trump hasrepeatedly declaredhe wants to see the Obamacare exchanges fail as a means of extracting concessions from congressionalDemocrats.

Executive action on association health plans could help Trump realize his goal, although at this point it’s difficult to know exactly what his administration is planning to do ― or even what the law would allow them to do.

Association health plans have been around for a long time, offering coverage to small businesses and individuals through trade organizations. Prior to the ACA’s enactment, they were subject only to state regulation, which meant their benefits and availability varied enormously.

The 2010 health care law lays down new rules for insurance companies selling to individuals and to small businesses ― like charging all consumers the same premiums, regardless of pre-existing conditions, and requiring that all plans include a set of essential benefits. President Barack Obama’s administration, through official “guidance,” made clear that all the new rules apply to the association health plans as well.

But the statute itself doesn’t state that explicitly, and the Department of Health and Human Services could attempt to reverse the Obama-era guidance, legal scholars told HuffPost on Wednesday ― in effect, exempting association health plans from some of the new rules. TheNational Federation of Independent Businesses, a conservative organization that has been among Obamacare’s most relentless critics, has urged the administration to take precisely this step.

If that happens, association health plans, also known as AHPs, might have more freedom to sell skimpier plans that, for healthier beneficiaries, would be cheaper than plans they are buying today ― either through HealthCare.gov or state-based exchanges, or directly from insurers. But the more healthy people flocked to those plans, as individuals or part of small businesses, the more carriers selling to everybody else would have toincrease their premiumsto reflect their new, sicker pool of enrollees.

The plans would still be subject to state regulation and some other federal guidelines, too, so analysts were scrambling on Wednesday to figure out just how far-reaching the effects could be.

“We don’t know exactly what the Trump administration is going to do on this front,” saidKevin Lucia, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms. “But if they allow AHPs to bypass the ACA’s consumer protections, like not covering maternity and other essential health benefits, it sets up an uneven playing field, destabilizes the state individual and small group markets, and ultimately puts consumers at risk.”