United States President-elect Donald Trump is considering keeping parts of President Barack Obama's healthcare bill, also called Obamacare, intact.
During the US presidential campaign, the Republican businessman labelled the Affordable Care Act "a disaster" and said he would repeal it.
Donald Trump says he might keep parts of Obamacare after all. Photo: AFP
In his first interview since Wednesday's election, Mr Trump told the Wall Street Journal he favoured keeping some provisions.
They included allowing parents to keep adult children on their insurance and barring insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
Mr Trump said a big reason for the shift from his call for an all-out repeal was his meeting with President Obama, who suggested areas of the Affordable Care Act to preserve.
Donald Trump said he told the president he would look at his suggestions, and, out of respect, he would do that.
"Either Obamacare will be amended, or repealed and replaced," Mr Trump told the Journal.
The law enabled millions of Americans who previously had no health insurance to obtain coverage, but Republicans opposed it and called it a Government over-reach.
What's on Trump's agenda
Other urgent priorities during his first few weeks as president, Trump said, would be deregulate financial institutions to allow "banks to lend again" and to secure the US border against drugs and illegal immigrants.
Asked whether he would pursue a campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate defeated Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state, Trump said: "It's not something I've given a lot of thought, because I want to solve healthcare, jobs, border control [and] tax reform".
Trump told the Journal he would create jobs through infrastructure projects and improved trade deals. He would preserve US jobs by potentially imposing tariffs on the products of US companies that relocated overseas.
- Reuters
