File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump walks to his office from Marine One as he returns to the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on Aug. 14, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order on Thursday to gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly known as Obamacare, after GOP-controlled Congress's repeated failure to get it repealed or replaced.

Suggesting that premiums under Obamacare "have gone skyrocketing," Trump labeled his executive order as "first steps to providing millions of Americans with Obamacare relief" before signing the document at the White House.

Trump said the order directs several government departments to take action to "increase competition, increase choice, and increase access to lower-priced, high-quality healthcare options" while costing the U.S. government "virtually nothing."

The Trump order proposes to allow more small businesses to form associations to buy affordable and competitive health insurance and expand these associations and health care plans across state line so as to create what the president called tremendous competition and low prices.

Besides, Trump said the administration will explore ways to make what it called short-term limited duration insurance "more widely available," a kind of health insurance policies not allowed to last more than three months under Obamacare rules.

He also instructed to find ways to allow more businesses to use tax-free health reimbursement arrangements or HRAs to compensate their employees for their healthcare expenses.