Previous US President Barack Obama had signed the Affordable Healthcare Act or Obamacare on March 23, 2010. The plan that has been opposed by the Republican Party ever since it was mooted by President Obama.

Obamacare, as it came to be called, was termed as the most important healthcare legislation in the US since Medicare, the national health insurance plan of the US for senior citizens, was launched in 1965.

The new US president, Donald Trump, has been a sharp critic of the act and, during the presidential campaign, vowed to replace it his own version if he came to power. Now in White House, Trump faces a major test with the US Congress House of Representatives likely to vote on his alternative healthcare proposal today.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW: The Republican senators feel Trumpcare is not comprehensive enough to meet those campaign promises and amendments are needed. Intense parleys are taking place but so far a consensus has not emerged. Estimates say Trumpcare is expected to leave 24 million Americans without insurance by 2026. Obamacare would have these Americans covered. But it may be even worse. A New York Times report says, quoting an analysis, the number of uninsured may be as high as 32 million more Americans by 2026. US media is replete with reports on pros and cons of Obamacare, like tax burdens, deductibles, coverage, freedom to choose insures and so on and how and if a Trumpcare can take care of it because as it is an issue that is going to define the Trump presidency as it had defined Obama's. The Republican Party, along with Donald Trump and Paul Ryan, is presenting Trumpcare as a panacea that will take care of every American's healthcare needs and Obamacare as a vestige of law that is detrimental enough to be replaced as soon as possible, its own house is not in order. The house vote on Trumpcare is expected on Thursday, but going by a latest CNN report, the Republicans still have no clear numbers to get Obamacare repealed and Trumpcare passed even if less than 24 hours are left for Trumpcare to go to vote. If Trumpcare fails to pass through a Republican majority house, it will be serious setback for Trump and will further complicate his days ahead. He is already facing serious charges on his Russia connections and the probe has reached to the White House. Then there are other controversial issues like his wiretap claims without evidence or his controversial travel ban, issues for which he is being slammed everywhere. Trumpcare which the expert have been doubting about from the beginning may end up like another Trump rhetoric which does nothing except stirring up society and market with his uncontrolled flow of tweets. Once the dust settles down, it only gives more energy to anti-Trump voices or in this case to the US pharmaceutical and insurance companies that, after going down because of a hostile Trump tweet, bounce back and even rally on stock exchanges, a CNN Money report says. Trump, during the campaign phase of the US presidential polls, and even after his election, had raised hopes of a healthcare act to replace Obamacare that would guarantee 'universal healthcare'. In an interview before his government's inaugural on January 20, 2017, he said 'we are going to have insurance for everybody', a Washington Post copy says. Going by that scale, anything less would be like betraying those hopes. But a universal healthcare was always an impossible concept because it would be so unwieldy, so expansive and so therefore so expensive, that it was not even in the Republican Party's plans for a healthcare act to replace Obamacare. The Washington Post op-ed, headlined 'Donald Trump may have just destroyed the Republican effort to repeal Obamacare' wrote, "Donald Trump emphatically promised universal health coverage. That's an absolutely gigantic promise, and it's one that Republicans have no intention of keeping".

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