President-elect Donald Trump, who had repeatedly campaigned on a promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said Friday that he would consider keeping certain parts of the health care law after meeting with President Obama at the White House this week.
In his first interview since winning the presidential election, Trump told the Wall Street Journal he was willing to leave in place provisions that prohibit insurers from denying coverage to patients because of preexisting medical conditions and that allow parents to keep their children on their insurance plans until age 26.
“I like those very much,” Trump said.
Health policy experts widely agree that keeping in place the popular requirement that insurers cover everyone while also repealing the much less popular mandate that everyone buys insurance would be unworkable, because the latter helps pay for the former. The Affordable Care Act mandates that people pay a fee if they opt out of health insurance. More than 100,000 people signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, the day after Trump was elected, according to the Obama administration.
Trump told the Journal that health care reform is one of the priorities on which he wants to act “quickly” as president. He also said he is prioritizing unity across the country.
“I want a country that loves each other,” said Trump, who made sexist and racist rhetoric a cornerstone of his campaign. “I want to stress that.”
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