President Donald Trump on Thursday cheered the passage of the American Health Care Act in the House at a ceremony at the White House with Republican lawmakers.
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Trump takes victory lap, says Obamacare is 'essentially dead' after House passes GOP healthcare bill
Trump hosted GOP lawmakers at the White House to celebrate the passage of the American Health Care Act.
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He said the bill's passage meant that the end of the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law better known as Obamacare, was in sight.
"It's dead. It's essentially dead. Unless we pay a lot of ransom money to the insurance companies," Trump said in the Rose Garden. "What we have is something that is very, very, incredibly well-crafted."
Trump also thanked the House GOP leadership, specifically Speaker Paul Ryan, for getting the bill through the House.
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"For the last week I've been hearing, 'Paul Ryan doesn't have it,' 'It's not working out with Paul Ryan, 'He's going to get rid of Paul Ryan,'" Trump said. "But then today I heard, 'Paul Ryan is a genius.'"
The president also promised to get it through the Senate.
"It's going to be an unbelievable victory when we get it through the Senate, and there's so much spirit there," Trump said.
Trump delayed a trip to New York City to meet with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull until after the vote.
Vice President Mike Pence, who spearheaded the White House effort to swing representatives' votes, also celebrated the bill's passage.
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"Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, welcome to the beginning of the end of Obamacare," Pence said.
The AHCA succeeded after a last-minute amendment on Wednesday night won over some moderate holdouts who had expressed concerns about changes to the bill that experts said would undermine protections for Americans with preexisting conditions.
The House Republicans' victory comes over a month after the original version of the AHCA was yanked from the House floor before a vote after a cohort of moderates and conservatives said they would oppose it.
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