
House GOP Pulls ACA Replacement Bill
After weeks of negotiations and last-minute drama, the House GOP has pulled its Obamacare replacement bill after it became clear that there were not enough votes to pass it.
After weeks of negotiations and last-minute drama, the House GOP has pulled its Obamacare replacement bill after it became clear that there were not enough votes to pass it.
“We came really close today, but we came up short,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said in a press conference after the bill was pulled.
Around midday on Friday, Ryan
The vote on AHCA, which had been postponed from its original scheduled date of Thursday, was supposed to start at 3:30 pm on Friday. At the beginning of the day,
“Obamacare is the law of the land,” Ryan said. “It’s going to remain the law of the land until it’s replaced. We did not have quite the votes to replace this law. So we’re going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future. I don’t know how long it’s going to take us to replace this law. My worry is Obamacare is going to be getting even worse.”
The House Freedom Caucus mostly stood in opposition to the bill, as well as a growing number of other representatives.
“The president understands this is it,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said before the bill was pulled, but after Ryan informed him they didn’t have the votes. “We had this opportunity to change the trajectory in healthcare…”
He added that the White House and GOP leadership did everything they could to address concerns, “but at the end of the day, this isn’t a dictatorship.”
While Ryan made no attempt to hide how disappointing it was that the bill did not pass, he remained optimistic that the work is not over.
“This is a setback no 2 ways about it,” he said. “But it is not the end of the story. Because I know that every man and woman in this Congress is now more motivated to step up our game. To deliver on our promises. I know that everyone is committed to seizing this incredible opportunity that we have.”
Shortly after the bill was pulled, the American Public Health Association celebrated the bill's defeat.
“With this measure off the table, at least for now, American lives have been spared," Georges C. Benjamin, MD, the association's executive director said in a statement. "Millions can keep their health insurance. Medicaid—the nation’s health insurance safety net—remains intact, as does critical public health funding and women’s access to reproductive health services."
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