Trump healthcare bill in tatters as Republicans fail to back legislation

Donald Trump’s key campaign promise to repeal and replace the Obamacare health legislation is on its knees after the US President could not conjure up enough support for the replacement bill.

The Republican party’s proposed alternative will fall flat after two GOP senators said they would not back the bill in its current form.

Senators Mike Lee and Jerry Moran said they would not support the legislation, with the party intensely divided as moderates say it will have too much of an adverse affect on the most vulnerable in US society.

A core part of his successful election campaign last year, Trump had promised to get rid of the landmark health legislation of his predecessor Barack Obama and introduce a replacement, but now Senate leader Mitch McConnell has said Republicans will propose a vote to just repeal the policy.

"Regretfully, it is now apparent that the effort to repeal and immediately replace the failure of Obamacare will not be successful," McConnell said.

Trump himself also called for a repeal of Obamacare with the aim of taking a long-term view to its replacement.

“Republicans should just repeal failing ObamaCare now & work on a new healthcare plan that will start from a clean slate. Dems will join in,” Trump tweeted.

Pharmaceutical stocks in the US were mostly down when the market closed on Monday, with the likes of Pfizer (-0.54%) and UnitedHealth Group (0.29%) among those falling slightly.