US House narrowly backs new Republican healthcare bill

The US House of Representatives narrowly voted in favour of a healthcare bill drafted to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obama Care.

The measure, voted in on Thursday now heads to the US Senate, where it will face an uphill battle.

Twenty Republicans went against the bill, while no democrats voted in favour of it.

The vote against former President Barack Obama's signature domestic achievement, which enabled 20 million more Americans to get health insurance, is President

This proved to be Donald Trump's biggest legislative win since he took office in January.

However, in the Senate, where the Republican majority is narrow, law and policy makers are expected to subject the new bill for further scrutiny.

Speaking with dozens of Republican lawmakers huddled behind him in front of the White House, Trump said he felt "so confident" that the bill would pass the Senate as well.

"It will be an unbelievable victory," he added.

Obamacare "is dead. If we don't pay lots of ransom money over to the insurance companies, it would die immediately," Trump said.

Passed in 2010, Obama's Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid, the government insurance programme for the poor, provided income-based tax credits to help the poor buy insurance on individual insurance markets set up by the law, and required everyone to buy insurance or pay a penalty.

Republicans have blamed it for driving up healthcare costs.

The Republican bill, called the American Health Care Act, would revoke most Obamacare taxes, which paid for the law, roll back the Medicaid expansion and slash the programme's funding. It will also revoke the penalty for not purchasing insurance and replace the law's tax credits with flat age-based credits.

"This is a step away from more government control of our healthcare and our day-to-day lives, and a return to freedom for all Americans," said Republican Representative Luke Messer.

Thursday's victory came just weeks after the conservative Republican majority in the House of Representatives failed to gather enough support to pass the motion.

The decision on March 24 to pull the plug on the Republican-proposed healthcare law replacement - hours before a scheduled vote - was a humiliating defeat for Trump.

The bill was amended for the second try, adding a modest pool of money they say would help people with pre-existing medical conditions afford coverage.