--- title: AHCA: Hillary Clinton Calls Health Bill Failure a 'Victory' description: "It's a victory for anyone who believes affordable health care is a human right," Hillary Clinton said after the bill failed canonical: https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/ author: Alana Abramson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-24T21:48:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T10:20:25.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton on GOP Health Care Bill Failure: 'Today Was a Victory' og:description: "It's a victory for anyone who believes affordable health care is a human right" og:url: https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc1126621d1b652b/6988bfe4f887dcfc20e99939/hrc-health-care-reax.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton Speaks At Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards At The Kennedy Center In Washington, DC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton on GOP Health Care Bill Failure: 'Today Was a Victory' twitter:description: "It's a victory for anyone who believes affordable health care is a human right" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc1126621d1b652b/6988bfe4f887dcfc20e99939/hrc-health-care-reax.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton on GOP Health Care Bill Failure: 'Today Was a Victory' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=f76458d7-2995-47c1-ba97-92f6574aed7f&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump: It's the Democrats' Fault the Health Care Bill Failed [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump: It's the Democrats' Fault the Health Care Bill Failed](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ySPMTcST.m3u8) (1:44)  _Published 2017-03-24. President Donald Trump blamed Democrats on Friday for the failure of the GOP health care bill that would have replaced the Affordable Care Act._  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:20 AM UTCPublished: Mar 24, 2017 9:48 PM UTC  by [Alana Abramson](https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/)  ## Alana Abramson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 10:20 AM UTCPublished: Mar 24, 2017 9:48 PM UTC Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate [Hillary Clinton](http://motto.time.com/4712239/hillary-clinton-whiskey-rodham-rye/) called the House Republicans’ [failure](http://time.com/4712883/ahca-paul-ryan-donald-trump-no-vote-obamacare/) to repeal and replace [Obamacare](http://time.com/4712725/ahca-house-repeal-votes-obamacare/) Friday a victory for the millions people she said would have become uninsured if the bill had passed. “Today was a victory for the 24, 000, 000, people at risk of losing their health insurance, for senior, for families battling the quiet epidemic of addiction, for new moms and women everywhere,” she wrote in a statement posted on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/845385004389666816). “Most of all it’s a victory for anyone who believes affordable health care is a human right.” House Republicans withdrew the bill from a floor vote after they did not have support to pass it. > [](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/845385004389666816) Clinton subsequently began tweeting stories of people who she says would have been adversely affected by the passage of the bill. > [](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/845385238628982784) She also credited constituents for fighting against the proposed legislation. “This victory happened because people in every corner of our country committed their time and energy to calling their representatives, showing up at town hall meetings, and making their voices heard,” she wrote. “We are reminded today that there is no substitute for standing up and defending our values.” ## Transcript Pass the bill in the house without any democratic support. Why do you think you are enable to craft to deal among the republican part? Well, we were very close. We were just probably anywhere from 10 to 15 votes short. Could've of even been closer than that, you'll never know because you never know how they vote. But in the end, I think we would've been ten votes, maybe closer. And it's very hard to get almost 100 %. You're talking about a very, very large number of votes among any group. We were very close to doing it. But when you get no votes from the other side, meaning the Democrats, it's really a difficult situation. Will you reach out to Democrats now? No I think we have to let Obamacare go it's way for a little while, and we'll see how things go. I'd love to see it do well, but it can't, I mean it can't. It's not a question of gee I hope it does well, I would love it to do well. I want great healthcare for people of this nation, but it can't do well. It's imploding, and soon will explode. And it's not gonna be pretty. So the Democrats don't want to see that. So they're gonna reach out when they're ready. And whenever they're ready, we're ready. And I never said, I guess I'm here, what, 64 days, I never said repeal and replace Obamacare. You've all heard my speeches. I never said repeal it and replace it within 64 days. I have a long time But I wanna have a great healthcare bill and plan and we will. It will happen . And it won't be in the very distant future. I really believe that with some Democrat support, that will happen and it will be an even better bill. I think this was a very good bill. I think it will be even better The next time around. And I don't think that's gonna be in too long a period of time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton on GOP Health Care Bill Failure: 'Today Was a Victory'","datePublished":"2017-03-24T21:48:00.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T10:20:25.000Z","description":"\"It's a victory for anyone who believes affordable health care is a human right\"","url":"https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/","keywords":["Health Care","Hillary Clinton","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc1126621d1b652b/6988bfe4f887dcfc20e99939/hrc-health-care-reax.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alana Abramson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alana-abramson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc1126621d1b652b/6988bfe4f887dcfc20e99939/hrc-health-care-reax.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton Speaks At Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards At The Kennedy Center In Washington, DC","caption":"Hillary Clinton Speaks At Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards At The Kennedy Center In Washington, DC","creditText":"Justin Sullivan—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/","name":"Hillary Clinton on GOP Health Care Bill Failure: 'Today Was a Victory'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump: It's the Democrats' Fault the Health Care Bill Failed","description":"President Donald Trump blamed Democrats on Friday for the failure of the GOP health care bill that would have replaced the Affordable Care Act.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ySPMTcST/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-03-24T21:27:07.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ySPMTcST.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/","duration":"PT1M44S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4713081/hillary-clinton-ahca-health-care-bill-failure/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```