“This back-room deal will kill the requirement for insurance companies to offer essential health benefits such as emergency services, maternity
care, mental health care, substance addiction treatment, pediatric services, prescription drugs and many other basic essential services.”
Defeat of the bill could be a catalyst if it forces Republicans
and Democrats to work together to improve the Affordable Care Act, which virtually every member of Congress believes needs repair.
In Major Defeat for Trump, Push to Repeal Health Law Fails -
By ROBERT PEAR, GLENN THRUSH and THOMAS KAPLANMARCH 24, 2017
President Trump spoke from the Oval Office after Republicans pulled the House bill that was intended to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders, facing a revolt among conservatives
and moderates in their ranks, pulled legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act from consideration on the House floor Friday afternoon in a significant defeat for President Trump on the first legislative showdown of his presidency.
The Republican bill would have replaced the Affordable Care Act, known informally as Obamacare, which mandated
that almost everyone have health insurance, with a system of age-based tax credits to purchase health insurance plans.
“It’s enough already.”
Paul D. Ryan, the House speaker, said, “We are going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future,”
after Republicans decided to pull the bill repealing Obamacare in a blow to President Trump.