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After promising a full repeal of Obamacare, Trump is shifting course on the health care bill
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

After promising a full repeal of Obamacare, Trump is shifting course on the health care bill

Throughout the entire campaign season, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to completely repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, but now the brash billionaire seems to be rethinking — or at least rewording — his foundational campaign promise.

In an interview Friday with the Wall Street Journal, Trump said he wanted to move "quickly" on the 2010 health bill, but struck a more bipartisan tone on how he would alter President Barack Obama's signature legislation, saying, "Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced."

After meeting with Obama in the White House Thursday, Trump expressed an interest in preserving two key provisions in the current law. He wants to maintain measures that block insurers from denying coverage because of a patient's preexisting conditions and a provision that allows children to remain on their parent's health care plan until the age of 26.

"I like those very much," the president-elect said.

Trump said he made the decision to reconsider a full repeal of the Affordable Care Act after his conversation with Obama, whom the businessman said made suggestions about provisions in the health care law to preserve.

"I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that," Trump said.

Trump used the promise of a full repeal of the health law as somewhat of a rallying cry throughout the election cycle. According to his campaign website, he believes Obamacare is "certain to collapse of its own weight," and of the individual mandate, which the GOP has largely rejected, he said, "No person should be required to buy insurance unless he or she wants to."

The website even promises Trump will call for the "full repeal of Obamacare" on "day one of the Trump Administration."

It is important to note, however, that all of the Obamacare replacement proposals presented by Republican lawmakers include provisions similar to the ones Trump is interested in retaining.

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