[JURIST] President Donald Trump’s healthcare bill was withdrawn from Congress [H.R. 1628 actions] on Friday after pushback from moderate Republicans and Democrats. Introduced to fulfill one of Trump’s biggest campaign promises, repealing the Affordable Care Act [Medicaid backgrounder], the American Health Care Act of 2017 (AHCA) was pulled from Congress on the eve of its scheduled vote. Trump issued an ultimatum to Congress Republicans earlier in the day, telling them that Trumpcare was to be the only opportunity to repeal Obamacare. Although the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the AHCA would reduce the deficit by $336 billion between this year and 2026, Congress seemed to be split on the issue of whether the AHCA went too far or not far enough. In the aftermath, Trump indicated [Rolling Stone report] that Republicans would go after tax reform as they waited for Obamacare to “explode.”

Repealing the ACA was a significant element of the latest election cycle. Earlier this week, Republican lawmakers released two amendments [JURIST report] to the AHCA in an effort to appeal to both conservative and liberal critics. Senators proposed [JURIST report] the initial ACA replacement bill at the end of January. This came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order [JURIST report] aimed at repealing the ACA, shortly after being sworn in. The Senate had prepared for the repealing of the ACA earlier that month when it voted 51-48 [JURIST report] to prevent the process from being subject to a filibuster.