House observers are crossing their fingers that the Republicans' Obamacare version will be dead on arrival in the upper chamber. House Republicans proposed a legislation to replace Obamacare on Monday night. But less than 24 hours later, lawmakers and activist groups on the conservative right came out en masse against the American Health Care Act (AHCA), saying that it was not so enough. Now Republicans of two major shades- the conservative right and the moderate right cannot agree on the substance and extent of overhaul of the President Barack Obama's 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Still, President Trump on Twitter congratulated House Republicans on Tuesday. He said it was just the beginning of a multiphase effort to restructure the health care system, The Washington Post reported. Yet observers are saying that the President has not really expressed significant interest in the ins and outs of health-care policy, and he just wants "insurance for everybody". For that effort of the Republicans' conservatives, Trump recoiled and said he agreed for changes in the Republican plan for Obamacare. He is bidding now for immediate changes and for more support to the bill ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives next week.
But then the Republicans are deeply divided on the issue even as some wanted to really deliver results to fulfill one of Trump's major campaign pledges, to repeal and replace Obamacare. Speaker Paul Ryan is convincing conservatives who are skeptical of the House GOP health-care plan (the AHCA) that it is a politically viable conservative-reform effort. Ryan told National Review that the House plan gives governors freedom to customize Medicaid to the needs of their states. Ryan would still crisscross the country in the coming weeks in states that voted for him to make the case for the Republican health-care plan. Meantime, the fate of AHCA hangs in the balance when the majority controlling the House is deeply divided on the issue.
(CBS News/YouTube)
