president Trump told the Washington Post “We pulled it” referring to the Health care bill that was up for consideration in the house today. As a result, The Affordable Care Act will survive for now. Trump had given lawmakers an ultimatum just a day ago but the end result was an abrupt end to the appeal of Obamacare
Without warning
Legislators were shocked that the bill was pulled after all the work that was put into it but Rep Greg Walden who made significant contributions to the writing of the new one said that it was “dead. DOA” Paul Ryan had advised President Trump that they did not have enough votes to pass the legislation just prior to removing it from consideration.
The rewrite failed despite intense negotiations and lobbying by Trump, Paul Ryan and other Republican Leaders to get other skeptical lawmakers on board. In the end it wasn't enough.
Ramifications
The Republicans had been working tirelessly toward the appeal of the ACA. Trump campaigned on the promise of replacing the act with something that was much better. His promise to repeal and replace failed to materialize and is a big loss for Trump who wrote the book on deal making. It is an acknowledgment of failure to bring about promised change in the Health care system. The current bill governing health care in the US will remain in place until there is a new proposal. This is good news for many of Americans polled recently who said they want to maintain the care they had over the last seven years.
Why it failed
There were several tweaks introduced to the bill on Thursday in an effort to get more legislators on board. In the end failure came swiftly. The bill and amendments did not sit well with conservatives and moderates. One change would have added billions of dollars to a flexible fund to to pay for mental health and maternity programs.
It was hoped the change would appease moderates and conservatives but both groups did not think they went far enough. No democratic was expected to vote for the legislation and with a fractured Republican block, defeat was inevitable.
