HARRISBURG — U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania gave a withering assessment of the Republican effort to undo President Barack Obama’s signature health care law Monday, saying coalitions weren’t built, its complexity was underestimated and artificial deadlines were set.

Dent, a prominent Republican moderate in the U.S. House, said any successes in fixing or undoing portions of Obama’s law will have to happen on a bipartisan basis, and in bits and pieces at a time. “The question is, ‘how much of a reform can we do?’” Dent said after speaking at the Pennsylvania Press Club in Harrisburg. “I suspect we’re going to be ending up doing more incremental reforms to the law, as opposed to a massive overhaul.”

The legislation that failed lacked support from governors, health care providers or patient advocates, and Dent said the bill’s architects did not make enough of an attempt engage them and build coalitions.

Dent announced his opposition to the GOP’s health care package on Thursday night. Speaker Paul Ryan pulled it from the floor on Friday for lack of support.

House leadership must move away from trying to appease the House’s most conservative members who are unlikely to vote for major legislation anyway, Dent said. Such accommodations drove away Republican moderates and precipitated an avalanche against the bill, Dent said.

With Congress tackling major changes to tax laws and assemble an infrastructure package, Dent suggested that the collapse of the health care legislation should serve as a warning.

Democrats and Republicans both want to fix problems in the individual insurance market and repeal at least some of the taxes that underwrite coverage under Obama’s law, Dent said. “Well, why don’t we start there?” Dent said. “There’s a place to start. And we can negotiate this in Congress and send it off to President Trump. I think we can do it. I really do, so call me crazy or call me optimistic, but I think we can do it.”