US President Donald Trump has blamed Democrats for the failure of his healthcare bill.
Both houses of Congress are controlled by Mr Trump’s Republican party but the bill was withdrawn on Friday because it could not get the votes required.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Mr Trump said “We couldn’t get one Democratic vote, and we were a little bit shy… so we pulled it.”
The last-minute retraction is seen as a huge blow to the president.
Repealing and replacing the healthcare programme known as Obamacare was one of his major election pledges.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said he and Mr Trump agreed to withdraw the vote, after it became apparent it would not get the minimum of 215 Republican votes needed.
Republicans have a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
However, multiple reports suggested that between 28 and 35 Republicans were opposed to President Trump’s draft American Health Care Act (AHCA).
Some were said to be unhappy that the bill cut health coverage too severely, while others felt the changes did not go far enough.
The bill also appeared unpopular with the public – in one recent poll, just 17% approved of it.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the AHCA would reduce the deficit by $336bn between 2017 and 2026.
However, the number of Americans without health insurance would stand at 52 million by the same time – an extra 24 million compared with Obamacare.
Speaking after the withdrawal, Mr Trump repeatedly said Obamacare would “explode”.
However, he refrained from criticising Mr Ryan, whose job as speaker of the House involves rallying support for controversial bills.
Mr Trump said: “I like Speaker Ryan. I think Paul really worked hard.”
Mr Ryan also told reporters the president had been “really been fantastic”.
9News Nigeria
