NEW YORK _ President-elect Donald Trump signaled he may take a more flexible view of what to do with the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama's signature health law that's often called Obamacare.
"Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced," Trump told The Wall Street Journal.
Trump said Obama suggested areas of the health law to keep during his Thursday meeting with the President, according to the Journal.
On the campaign trail, Trump's attacks on the health law intensified toward the end of his campaign. At his final rally on the eve of the election in Grand Rapids, Mich., he called for "repealing and replacing the disaster known as Obamacare." And Trump's initial health plan, published Thursday on his transition website, also called for the ACA to be repealed and replaced.
"A Trump Administration will work with Congress to repeal the ACA and replace it with a solution that includes Health Savings Accounts, and returns the historic role in regulating health insurance to the States," according to the website.
Trump told The Wall Street Journal that he values two features of the ACA: a ban on insurers denying coverage to individuals who are sick, and a provision allowing children to stay on their parents' plans for a period of time.
His transition website lays out an approach to the issue of coverage for individuals who are sick with so-called "pre-existing conditions" that's different from the ACA. On the site, Trump says he'd use high-risk pools _ state insurance programs for individuals who are sick or otherwise unable to get coverage _ to cover those with large medical expenses who have "not maintained continuous coverage."
