Obamacare: Donald Trump says government will 'hopefully' strike new healthcare deal
President strikes more cautious note than usual
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Your support makes all the difference.President Trump has struck a much more cautious note when talking about health care, saying that "hopefully" a new deal will be made.
On Twitter on Sunday morning, Mr Trump wrote that: "Talks on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck."
It was perhaps the first time that the President has used less strident language on scrapping Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, that was signed under former President Barack Obama in 2010.
During the campaign trail and after he stepped into office, he repeatedly promised to "immediately" or "very quickly" abandon Obamacare, which he said was a "disaster" and that it would be "easy" to replace.
He then decided to keep certain provisions of the Act, such as not discriminating against pre-existing medical conditions, and allowing young people to be signed onto their parents' plan until the age of 26, and was consequently branded as "Obamacare-lite" by more hardline Conservatives.
The proposed American Health Care Act bill, kept under lock and key at Capitol Hill, was pulled last month after House Speaker Paul Ryan realised they would not obtain enough votes for it to be passed. Democrats would have voted in block against it, as it would instate a cap on Medicaid spending after 2020 and proposed other controversial clauses like transferring penalties for not purchasing insurance from benefiting the government to the insurance provider.
Many Republicans also felt the new bill did not go far enough to completely repeal the old law, which made premiums and deductibles more expensive and even unaffordable for the middle class.
Mr Trump, once the bill was pulled, said he had never promised to replace US health care within 68 days.
His approval rating quickly plummeted to a record low of 35 per cent by 28 March, found Gallup.
He also tweeted: "Anybody (especially Fake News media) who thinks that Repeal & Replace of ObamaCare is dead does not know the love and strength in R Party!"
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