White House in talks to revive Trump's healthcare bill

The White House is making moves to revive Donald Trump’s healthcare bill after the Republicans were forced to cancel a vote on it last month.

Government officials met with groups in the Republican party to discuss reviving the healthcare bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

Trump’s first foray into legislation was met with difficulty in the House of Representatives, despite the Republican party holding a majority in Congress.

Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to cancel a vote on the bill after he became aware that he lacked the votes from moderate Republicans who were against some of the changes and conservative Republicans who think that it is too similar to Obamacare.

Senior members of Trump’s administration including Vice President Mike Pence held talks with moderate Republicans at the White House. Pence also went to Capitol Hill to meet with the Freedom Caucus, a group of hardline Republicans, according to Reuters.

Investors are eyeing activities surrounding the bill as they see it as a measure of Trump’s ability to push his ambitious agenda forward in Congress.

He is planning to tackle tax reform next and has promised to spend $1trn on infrastructure and curb financial regulation.

Markus Allenspach, head of fixed income research at Julius Baer, a Swiss bank, said that the market’s focus has shifted from fiscal stimulus and reflation to budget conflict and the risk of a government shutdown in four weeks’ time.

He said that the market was concerned “that both the administration and the various factions in Congress are determined to fight for their positions until the very last minute. The next deadline is 28 April, when the current ‘continuing resolution’ lapses.

A continuing resolution is bill that sets aside money for federal US government department, agencies and programmes.

"Without an ex-tension, the US administration is forced to close down all non-essential bodies in a process known as ‘government shutdown’. Any agreement before the very last minute would be a surprise", Allenspach said.

"We cannot rule out that market anxiety will intensify prior to the 28 April deadline. Given the experience of previous shutdowns, however, we would regard any material setback in the market as a buying opportunity."