Was the latest attack on the ACA premeditated?

The clause of the ACA that protects people with pre-existing conditions from discrimination has long been one of its most popular provisions. Trump and many Republican Congresspeople have claimed that they intend to keep it in place.

Now there is a lawsuit headed by the Attorneys General of 20 red states looking to overturn it. The argument is that now that the individual mandate is repealed (as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017) the protections for people with pre-existing conditions must be too, as these clauses are considered “inseverable.”

The DOJ has a constitutional mandate to defend laws that are on the books, but Trump’s DOJ refused to defend the ACA in court. The case will now move to the SCOTUS.

My main question is, do you suppose this was premeditated? Surely lawmakers understood that repealing the individual mandate might have this consequence, and they did not have to repeal the mandate if they really were as supportive of the pre-ex clause as they claimed to be.