US healthcare bill: Trump issues Friday vote ultimatum

[greeNZ]

• US President Donald Trump has demanded a make-or-break vote in the House of Representatives on Friday on his troubled health care bill.

The American Healthcare Act is intended to replace parts of President Barack Obama's signature "Obamacare" law.

A vote on Thursday was delayed because of opposition from some Republicans.

Mr Trump reportedly warned fellow Republicans that they had a choice between voting for his bill on Friday or being stuck with Obamacare for good.

The president made the warning during a closed-door meeting at the White House, US media reported.

Republican and House Speaker Paul Ryan said: "For seven-and-a-half years we have been promising the American people that we will repeal and replace this broken law because it's collapsing and it's failing families, and tomorrow we're proceeding."

  Image copyright EPA Image caption Mr Trump had a meeting with truckers at the White House, but hit a roadblock in the House

Meanwhile, Chris Collins, New York's Republican representative, said: "The president has said he wants a vote tomorrow, up or down. If for any reason it is down, we are just going to move forward with additional parts of his agenda."

Repealing and replacing Obamacare was a major plank of Mr Trump's election campaign, but his replacement has stalled amid Republican infighting. The party is unable find a compromise: the current reforms go too far for some and not far enough for others.

The postponement of Thursday's vote was a setback for the president, who had insisted he would win the numbers to pass it through the lower chamber of Congress on that day.

He needs a minimum of 215 Republicans to vote for the bill. If 22 Republicans join the Democrats in voting against the bill it will fail, and an Associated Press tally late on Thursday suggested that at least 28 Republicans opposed it.

Media captionHealthcare battle in rural America

The administration's hope is that Mr Trump's ultimatum will force Republicans opposed to the bill to vote Yes if the alternative is the preservation of Mr Obama's healthcare legislation.

Earlier on Thursday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Mr Trump had made a "rookie's error for bringing this up on a day when clearly you're not ready".

The bill needs 215 votes to pass but ran into opposition mainly from conservative Republicans who believed it did not roll back enough of Mr Obama's Affordable Care Act.

---