Healthcare vote goes to the wire

DONALD Trump faced a reckoning yesterday as US lawmakers vote on his presidency’s biggest legislative test, the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, as conservatives vowed to kill it unless important last-minute changes are made.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives votes on the controversial measure despite challenges over whether Trump and his ally, house speaker Paul Ryan, have enough backing to get the measure over the finish line.

With Democrats opposed to Trump’s effort to rip up his predecessor’s crowning domestic policy achievement, Trump brought in wavering lawmakers on Wednesday to try to tip the scales in his favour.

Insiders say Trump’s meetings have been focused less on specifics than on the politics of “Trumpcare” failing – an outcome that would be a humiliating defeat for the billionaire leader at the start of his term.

But some lawmakers have emerged defiant, including Mark Meadows, chairman of the grassroots conservative Freedom Caucus.

“We need changes to the underlying bill before we vote on it in the house,” Meadows told reporters.

For years, Republicans have promised to overturn Obama’s reform, describing it as government overreach.

But some lawmakers have balked at their own party’s plan, saying it is still too costly for the government.

Others worry that their constituents will no longer be able to afford health insurance. A nonpartisan congressional budget estimate says 14 million Americans would lose their coverage from next year under the Republican plan.

The house vote on the American Health Care Act (AHCA) looks tight.

The Democratic minority is prepared to vote against it as a bloc, so Republican leaders need to limit defections to about 22 out of their party’s 237 representatives – depending on how many members end up casting a vote.

After defeats in the federal courts for both of his executive orders on immigration, the president needs to show he can get results on the Hill.

So far, he has only succeeded in rolling back some Obama-era regulations and signed into law a bill on Nasa funding.

Should the house have succeeded in passing the bill yesterday, the senate was expected to take up the measure next week.

Trump will need all of his negotiating talent once again, as opposition there is likely to be equally stiff. — AFP