(Bloomberg Gadfly) Now that Obamacare looks like itmight stick around a little while longer, maybeUnitedHealth Group Inc. should reconsider abandoning it. Of course,the insurer's solid second-quarter results reported on Tuesday— it beat analyst earnings expectations and boosted full-yearguidance — benefited from its retreat from the Affordable CareAct's (ACAs) individual exchanges.

But odd as it may seem, given how well the decision to bail onthe ACA has paid off, UnitedHealth should atleast consider an eventual return. Getting out wasarguably the right choice for the company last year. But if doneright, returning could be a good idea, too.

First, a caveat: This is conditional on the Trump administrationnot sabotaging the ACA and retaining cost-sharing subsidiesthat help low-income Americans afford insurance. A return toObamacare would ideally happen after a bipartisan fix addressingother insurer concerns.

And that's quite a condition; President Donald Trump hassignaled he'd rather see the ACA fail than fix it.

But the idea of a bipartisan fix isn't as far-fetched as it oncewas. Repeal-and-replace is likely dead. GOP senators arecalling for hearings on market stabilization. And sabotaging thehealth-care system would be shockingly callous and could backfirepolitically.

A test of the administration's intentions will comelater this week, when a cost-sharing payment is due. UnitedHealthshould be watching.

The company's first ACA sojourn didn't go well. Imperfections inthe law, along with Republican efforts, undermined severalprovisions that protected insurers. Growth didn't always meetexpectations. And patients were sicker than anticipated.

UnitedHealth lost hundreds of millions of dollars on theexchanges in 2015 and 2016. It announced last April it would mostlypull out of the individual market in 2017. That hasflattered its results, boosting operating margins and earnings.

The exit has also shifted investor focus to the firm'sconsistently growing Optum health-care services and technologyunit. UnitedHealth's shares are up 49 percent since itconfirmed its ACA retreat. But now that the company hasretrenched, there's a case to be made for expanding once more.

UnitedHealth's insurance business has been benefiting fromMedicare Advantage, a private alternative to traditionalMedicare. But UnitedHealth will face increasedcompetition there from other large insurers, including Anthem Inc.,Cigna Corp., and Humana Inc. Its opportunities to expand viaacquisition are limited; it's already among the market-shareleaders everywhere but the ACA exchanges. And the governmentrejected two insurance industry mega-mergers this year.

UnitedHealth could continue to bulk up Optum; it has alreadyshelled out more than $16 billion on deals focused on the unit overthe past two years. But with $18 billion in cash on hand andhealthy free cash flow, it has plenty of dry powder for otherbets.

If the ACA's individual market continues to stabilize -- a hugeif! -- it could be an attractive area of future growth, given howmany other insurers have joined UnitedHealth in retreating.And there are are reasons to think the company might do betterthere a second time around.

Rivals such as Molina Healthcare Inc. and Centene Corp. havelargely thrived in the individual market. This suggests that,though UnitedHealth's struggles were partly due to ACA flaws, poorexecution also had a role.

UnitedHealth can learn from those rivals and from its ownexperience, including its relatively successful Medicaid business— a market with some similarities to the exchanges.And the company believes its integration with Optum's technologyand other services gives it a cost advantage. There's no reasonthat shouldn't extend to the exchanges.

It's possible the Medicaid business might prod re-entry inanother way. Some states are pondering cutting insurers whodon't participate in the individual exchanges out of Medicaidcontracts. When an analyst asked about that possibility onTuesday's earnings call, CEO Stephen Hemsley said thefirm hasn't seen any trend suggesting states will broadly tiethe programs together. But given UnitedHealth is the third-largestfor-profit Medicaid insurer and competes with firms with a muchlarger exchange presence, it's something to watch.

An abundance of caution is warranted, and any expansion shouldbe slow. But just because UnitedHealth very publicly broke up withObamacare doesn't mean a reunion is impossible.