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Healthcare
Washington, March 17, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday stepped up his fight for support on Republicans’ plan to dismantle Obamacare.
He wooed some conservative lawmakers at the White House while legislation advanced toward a possible vote in the House of Representatives by next week.
Republicans remain deeply divided over their U.S. healthcare overhaul.
That was Trump’s first major legislative initiative and one that aims to make good on his campaign pledge to repeal and replace the healthcare plan put in place by his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.
Trump met at the White House with 13 members of the House Republican Study Committee, a large group of conservative lawmakers seeking changes to Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance programme for the poor.
“I am 100 per cent behind this,’’ Trump told reporters after the meeting.
Trump said all the lawmakers in attendance now supported the healthcare bill after previously questioning it.
“We made certain changes but frankly very little,’’ he said.
U.S. Health Secretary Tom Price also did his part to win over reluctant Republican lawmakers in a meeting at the Capitol.
The healthcare measure championed by House Speaker Paul Ryan passed through a key House panel in spite of objections by some conservatives who consider it too similar to the 2010 law that became known as Obamacare. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Ese E. Ekama