Donald Trump says Australia's universal healthcare system is better than what America has

Mr Trump makes comment just hours after the House voted to repeal and replace Obamacare

Donald Trump has praised Australia's universal healthcare system, telling Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that ““you have better healthcare than we do” -

Mr Trump held a joint news conference with Mr Turnbull in New York just hours after the House passed a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The bill the house passed includes several provisions experts say actually makes healthcare prohibitively expensive and more difficult to obtain for millions of Americans.

For instance, pregnancy could cost up to 425 per cent more than under Obamacare.

Several medical associations also oppose the long list of pre-existing conditions under the Republican replacement, called the American Health Care Act.

Under Obamacare, people cannot be denied coverage.

Under the Trump replacement issues like diabetes, rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, C-sections, sleep apnea, asthma, depression, and anxiety could be considered grounds for denying coverage or significantly higher premiums depending on the insurance company.

On MSNBC, Senator Bernie Sanders raucously laughed at Mr Trump’s comments.

“Let us move to a Medicare-for-all system that does what every other major country on Earth does: guarantee health care to all people at a fraction of the cost per capita that we spend,” Mr Sanders said referring to the system under which senior citizens in the US receive free or heavily subsidised health care.

Despite the announcement made by Mr Trump and House Republicans in the Rose Garden of the White House after the vote, Obamacare is not dead yet.

The next step is a "scoring" of the plan by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the financial impact of the Republican replacement plan, which is expected to be made public the week of 8 May.

The replacement plan then goes to the Senate for a vote. Some provisions of Obamacare will require a simple majority vote of 51 out of 100 senators and Republicans control the majority.

However, other provisions - like the controversial mandates of Obamacare requiring insurance companies to cover mental health services, contraception, paediatric care, and other items - will require a two-thirds majority in order to pass.

The Senate vote is expected to take several weeks.