US President-elect Donald Trump has said he is open to leaving intact key parts of President Barack Obama’s healthcare bill.
Mr Trump, who has pledged to repeal the 2010 law, said he will keep the ban on insurers denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
He told the Wall Street Journal that he also favoured allowing young adults to be insured on their parents’ policies.
“I like those very much,” Mr Trump said of the two pillars of the bill.
It was his meeting with Mr Obama on Thursday that had made him reconsider his calls for an all-out replacement of the Affordable Care Act, he told the newspaper.
Asked whether he would implement a campaign promise to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate his defeated Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while secretary of state, Mr Trump said: “It’s not something I’ve given a lot of thought, because I want to solve healthcare, jobs, border control, tax reform.”
During the election campaign, Mr Trump said the government-run health insurance marketplace was “a total disaster” and “a catastrophe”.
“Obamacare is just blowing up,” he said only last month, while promising his own plan would deliver “great healthcare at a fraction of the cost”.
While running for president, Mr Trump did not offer much detail on what he envisaged would be Obamacare’s replacement.
The Republican’s plan included tax-deductible health savings accounts and allowing insurers to sell coverage across state lines.
His apparent change of heart on Friday comes amid a surge in applications to join the plan from Americans possibly fearful it is about to be overturned.
More than 100,000 applicants snapped up Obamacare health insurance on the day after Tuesday’s election, this year’s biggest sign-up, the Obama administration announced.
About 22 million Americans would be without insurance if the law was repealed.
Congressional Republicans have voted more than 50 times to undo the law.
Though the Republicans have maintained control of the Senate, they cannot repeal the Affordable Care Act in its entirety because under Senate rules, the Democratic minority remain in a position to block the move.
The Republicans could, however, starve parts of the bill of funding through a budgetary process called reconciliation.
