House Republican leaders on March 24, 2017, cancelled a planned 4 p.m. vote on the American Health Care Act (H.R. 1628), a repeal and replace bill that would have ended most Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax provisions effective in 2017 and further delayed the Cadillac tax. It was pulled as House leaders and President Trump were unable to build sufficient support among Republican members to pass it.

The development puts the focus on tax reform. "So now we are going to go for tax reform, which I have always liked," said President Trump. He said "Obamacare is exploding" and when it does, it would be good if Democrats "got together with us and got a real health care bill — I'd be totally open to it and I think that's going to happen." The President said "we will end up with a truly great health care bill in the future after this mess known as 'Obamacare' explodes," and that the recent experience will ultimately lead to a better product. Asked whether he will be reaching out to Democrats, President Trump said, "No, I think we have to let Obamacare go its way for a little while and we'll see how things go."

Also on March 24, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the President wants to proceed to issues that include tax reform and that "he's not willing to wait the several months that an ordinary President would" for the health care issue to be resolved. He also suggested that the White House would take the lead on tax reform: "When you see tax reform for the first time, it will be the President's plan and we will drive the debate on that."

During a news conference the same day, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Republicans had been close to winning the requisite votes to advance the bill but could not achieve a consensus, and acknowledged that the result was a disappointment. He said the United States would be "living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future." Speaker Ryan said lawmakers will move on to tax reform but it will be made more difficult by the outcome on the health care bill, which would have repealed some ACA tax provisions. "It's about a trillion dollars, but that just means the Obamacare taxes stay with Obamacare; we are going to go fix the rest of the tax code," he said. The Speaker said there are still things that the Department of Health and Human Services can do to stabilize the market, but some tools will be lost without the health care bill.

In a Democratic news conference, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, "What happened on the floor is a victory for the American people." It is not just about the 24 million people who were projected to lose coverage under the bill, but for the 155 million people who receive their health benefits in the workplace and "who will not be assaulted by some of the provisions that the Republicans put in the bill, especially last night when they removed the essential benefits package," she said.

This development capped a tumultuous week in which House Republican leaders made an initial round of modifications to the bill that would have repealed tax provisions a year earlier than the original version, effective beginning in 2017 for taxes that include the 3.8% net investment income tax, the medical device excise tax, the tax on prescription medications and the health insurance tax. It also would have added an additional year of relief from the Cadillac tax from the original version, moving the implementation date from 2025 to 2026. Under a more recent amendment, the repeal of the .9% Medicare surcharge tax on individuals earning over $200,000 annually would have been delayed to tax years after December 31, 2022.