Trump says he no longer plans to repeal Obamacare. Trump wants to keep the provision that prevents insurance companies from denying people with preexisting conditions and continue to force insurance companies to keep children on their parent’s insurance plans until the age of 26.
US President-elect Donald Trump said he will keep parts of President Obama’s health care law after campaigning on a promise to immediately repeal it in full.
Trump made the comments in an interview with Leslie Stahl for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” which airs on Sunday. In the same interview, Trump called his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton a “very strong and very smart” woman.
Trump said he would keep one part of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, that prevents insurers from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. “It happens to be one of the strongest assets,” Trump told Stahl.
Trump also said he would “very much try and keep” another part of the law that allows children to be covered under their parent’s insurance policies until 26. “It adds cost, but it’s very much something we are going to try and keep,” he said.
The president-elect added that the health care law would be repealed and replaced “simultaneously.”
Trump said he was willing to preserve these two provisions of Obamacare in an interview with The Wall Street Journal as well. A big reason he is no longer calling for an all-out repeal, he told the publication, was his meeting with Obama on Thursday.
“I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that,” Trump told the Journal. “Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced.”
Business Insider’s Bob Bryan notes that Republicans cannot repeal these parts of the law anyway because they are not related to government funding. Additionally, roughly 20 million people could be left without health insurance even with these provisions kept.
You can watch a segment of the “60 Minutes” interview below: