Preexisting condition? Your health coverage may go poof once Trump is president

Trump told The Wall Street Journal the president asked him to consider preserving parts of the healthcare law – and that he was open to the idea.

I know the headlines are suggesting that President-elect Donald J. Trump might be backpedaling on some policy issues, but some tweaks were expected as this is politics and you never get 100 percent of what you want.

Donald Trump has appeared to soften his stance on a range of sweeping campaign pledges, saying in his first interview since being elected USA president that he might not repeal Obamacare and admitting the prosecution of Hillary Clinton over confidential emails is not a priority.

This line of thought was welcome to congressional Republicans, many of whom have been trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), nicknamed Obamacare, since it was instituted in 2010.

The announcement, made by Trump during an interview with Wall Street Journal – his first one after the elections – comes as a surprise, as Trump had earlier called Obamacare “disastrous”.

The decision to leave in place parts of the Act, also known as Obamacare, was made after conferring with U.S. President Barack Obama, according to the report.

The notion of abruptly repealing the existing program and implementing a replacement in a seamless fashion without sending the insurance and hospital industries into a panic and rescinding coverage for more than 20 million Americans seems far-fetched at best.

Trump could “drop appeals against last May’s federal court ruling that said the Obama administration was illegally paying insurance companies to help keep health insurance costs down for low-income clients” and “stop fighting lawsuits against the mandate that employers pay for birth control for women covered under their insurance plans”, NBC News reported.

Kim Monk, an analyst at Capital Alpha Partners, which provides policy research to financial institutions, said Trump’s HHS might be able to tighten up the rules governing special enrollment periods for Obamacare.

Trump’s repeated attacks on the law were a central focus of his campaign.

President-elect Donald Trump listens to a question Thursday on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Trump previously admonished the Affordable Care Act, saying it was not working for the public. “It’s a modern age, and I think we have to have it”, Mr. Trump said in February at the CNN-Telemundo debate in Texas. Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, sent a “beautiful” letter.

Health-care officials are waiting to see what President-elect Donald Trump does to the Affordable Care Act.

Elsewhere, Mr Trump has handed his vice president the task of preparing for his move into the White House next January.