Donald Trump Tells 60 Minutes He Will Keep Parts of Obamacare

Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:31 pm

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While the GOP salivates over killing Obamacare at long last, after meeting President Obama Thursday, Donald Trump has decided to keep parts of the Affordable Care Act in place when he conducts his famous “repeal and replace” of Obama’s signature healthcare reform.

In an interview to be broadcast on CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday, he tells Lesley Stahl that he will keep both the part of the law that applies to pre-existing conditions and that which permit parents to keep children on their health insurance until they’re 26.

Watch courtesy of CBS News:

Lesley Stahl: When you replace it are you going to make sure that people with pre-conditions are still covered?
 
Donald Trump: Yes, because it happens to be one of the strongest assets. Also with the children living with their parents for an extended period. We’re gonna very much try to keep that. It adds cost but it’s very much something we’re going to try to keep.”
 
Stahl: And there’s going to be a period if you repeal it and before you replace when millions of people –
 
Trump: We’re gonna do it simultaneously. It will be just fine. That’s what I do, I do a good job. You know, I know how to do this stuff. We’re going to repeal it and replace it. We’re not going to have, like, a two-day period, and we’re not going to have a two-year period where there’s nothing. It will be repealed and replaced and we’ll know. And it will be great health care for much less money.”

So while some Republicans want to get rid of Obamacare before anything is ready to replace it, Trump has just rejected that idea out of hand by promising people will not go uninsured for even two days.

Trump had previously told the Wall Street Journal that Obama had asked him to retain parts of the law and “I told him I will look at his suggestions, and out of respect, I will do that.”

All through the campaign Trump’s tone was one of rejection, of “repeal and replace.” Now, at the request of the president whose name the law bears, president-elected Trump has apparently decided to reconsider and keep what he feels are the most critical parts of the law alive.

There was no mention, however, of another critical part of the law, that applying to lifetime limits, which “stops insurers from setting yearly or lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits.”

Image: Screen capture CBS

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.