Clearing its first major hurdle over the fight to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, U.S. House of Representative Republicans and President Donald Trump did a victory lap after the bill passed the House 217-213. No Democrats in the House supported the bill and 20 Republicans voted against it. The bill will now be considered by the U.S. Senate, but many people are skeptical whether this bill has any chance of being approved in the Senate and maybe no bill whatsoever regarding the repeal of Obamacare can come out of the Senate.
Trump is already leading the charge imploring Senate Republicans to “no let the American people down.”
Trump wants this bill passed by the Senate so he can sign new healthcare legislation into law. Moderate Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has already voiced displeasure over the House bill and said the Senate would come-up with its own bill and not even consider the House bill.
“The Senate is starting from scratch. We’re going to draft our bill, and I’m convinced we will take the time to do it right,” Collins said in a recent story posted on the ABC News website.
Major parts of the House bill that people have been critical of include less money to Medicaid for poor people and a danger of people with pre-existing conditions losing access to coverage. The true financial repercussions are still not fully known because the House passed the bill before it had a chance of being scored by the Congressional Budget Office, which offers the economic impact of proposed legislation.
The Senate is expected to offer its own bill within the next couple weeks to months, so it will be interesting to see the differences of the two bills. The House bill is not being received well by most of the American people or by medical professionals as the American Medical Association has already come out against the legislation.
