Americans who rely on 'Obamacare' have spoken of their fears over Donald Trump's plans to axe it - even as the President-elect appeared to backtrack over the plan.
Mr Trump promised to look at preserving some provisions of the healthcare law - the centrepiece of Barack Obama's legacy.
The billionaire had put his threat to "repeal and replace Obamacare" on day one of his presidency at the heart of his election campaign.
But he has told US interviewers that, after meeting President Obama this week, he might keep elements that prevent insurers dropping people with pre-existing conditions and allowing under-25s to stay on their parents' policy.
In his first interview since his election, Mr Trump said one priority was moving "quickly" on the President's health initiative, telling the Wall Street Journal it had become so unworkable and expensive that "you can't use it".
"Either Obamacare will be amended - or repealed and replaced," Mr Trump told the newspaper.
"I told him [President Obama] I will look at his suggestions and, out of respect, I will do that."
More than 20 million people now have health cover as a result of the law - officially known as the Affordable Care Act - which was passed in 2010 and took full effect in 2014.
"I have to say that without this we could not have had a child," Adnan Hussain told Sky News.
He and wife Christine welcomed baby Rizwan five weeks ago.
"There is a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of improving it but I am afraid of seeing it disappear," he said.
"To me it is a crime to think that if somebody doesn't have as much money they don't deserve to have healthcare."
The healthcare system in the US is enormously complex and reform has always been a controversial political issue.
Obamacare extended coverage to those not protected under plans for the old and poor, and who did not receive coverage through their work.
Repealing it would potentially throw millions of people out of the health insurance system. Finding a replacement system could take years.
It would also risk political warfare in Washington.
Dr Steven Wallace, associate director of UCLA's Centre for Health Policy Research, said: "There is a variety, a stew, of possible options that have been put out, none of which would insure the number of people that the Affordable Care Act does and cost more.
"The repeal part is easy, to replace is not so easy and my big concern is that the repeal happens before there is it a decision about a replacement."
In California, the most populous state in the US, it is estimated that four million people have signed up for healthcare since Obamacare took effect.
It is not universally popular and alarm over rocketing premiums is likely to have factored into the decision of many voters this week.
Republicans say the system is unwieldy and ineffective and some doctors agree.
Dr Lisa Ma, who runs the Mosaic family health clinic in El Sereno in Los Angeles, told Sky News: "I don't know if it really solved that much of a problem and it created a lot of new ones for sure.
"It is still in its nascent stages and it still needed time to develop and improve, so now that we are pulling it back it will definitely cause another earthquake."
Mr Trump's failure to live up to a campaign promise to repeal the law could earn him criticism from the faithful that he had not kept his word.
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