UPDATE: House Passes Bill to Repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act
Some major aspects of the Affordable Care Act that the Budget Reconciliation bill attempts to put an end to include Medicaid expansion that’s been adopted by 30 states and federal subsidies on the health insurance exchange.
By - The House of Representatives voted 240 to 181 in favor of the Budget Reconciliation bill, which would repeal large parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as well as take away funding from Planned Parenthood for one year, The Hill reports.
Representatives Bob Dold (Ill.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.) and John Katko (R-N.Y.) are the only Republicans who voted against this particular measure while Representative Collin Peterson (Minn.) was the only democrat to vote in favor of repealing major aspects of the Affordable Care Act.
“Unfortunately Republicans were right when we warned President Obama and Democrats that Obamacare would result in fewer jobs and increased costs. Today, I renew our invitation to President Obama to work with Republicans to start over, and go step by step to implement policies that will fix our broken healthcare system, increase choice and reduce costs so more Americans can afford to buy insurance that fits their budgets,” Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in a public statement.
Despite this move toward abolishing the landmark healthcare law, President Obama is expected to veto the measure and Congress does not have enough votes to override the veto. The Republican Party was able to get the bill through Senate much faster by using the reconciliation process, which allows legislation to pass with the majority of the votes.
Democratic Representatives spoke on the House floor about the impact this would bring to the nearly 16 million Americans currently enrolled in healthcare coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s programs.
“Is it for auld lang syne that 22 million Americans might actually lose their health insurance if the president would somehow sign this into law? Is it for auld lang syne that the Republicans and you, Mr. Speaker, are proposing that we…take away the primary care physician for poor women — 4 out of 10 who say it's their only source of healthcare?” Representative Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) said on the House floor.
If Obamacare was to be repealed, the Congressional Budget Office found it would lead to 22 million fewer Americans enrolled in a health insurance plan in the years after 2017. Currently, the Republican Party’s presidential nominees have stated that they would consider repealing Obamacare if they were the next President.
Potential alternatives to Obamacare
However, no senators or representatives from the Republican Party have offered a real alternative to the Affordable Care Act, which would truly be problematic for healthcare payers and providers who’ve only recently had to work toward implementing the law. Another major legislative change would likely not be welcomed with open arms by the healthcare industry.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), however, has asked committee chairmen to come up with a health coverage plan based on many replacement bills proposed in the House of Representatives.
The Health Policy Blog from the National Center for Policy Analysis reports some of the potential issues at hand in the Affordable Care Act that the Senate and House majority finds. These include the employer mandate, the individual mandate, and coverage for those with pre-existing conditions.
Representative Tom Price (R-GA) has stated a proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act. For example, Price’s plan consists of replacing the ‘Cadillac’ tax or the ‘open-ended tax exclusion’ with a fixed sum.
Additionally, Price feels that Americans need more choice in the type of health coverage they enroll in. This could mean “affordable coverage with limited benefits, high-deductibles or coverage that rewards them for taking care of their health.” Also, Price favors public policy that spurs discussion between physicians and patients regarding the price of care.
Policies the new legislation looks to overturn
Some of the major aspects of the Affordable Care Act that the Budget Reconciliation bill attempts to put an end to include Medicaid expansion that’s been adopted by 30 states, federal subsidies offered to low-income individuals on the health insurance exchange, and the authority of the federal government to manage the health insurance exchange.
Along with these measures, the Budget Reconciliation bill looks to block tax increases necessary for Obamacare programs, the ‘Cadillac’ tax on high-cost health plans, the medical device tax, a prevention and public health fund, and bailouts for health insurers. Efforts to defund Planned Parenthood funding for the next year are leading women’s health agencies to decry the House passage of the Budget Reconciliation bill.
“In 2015, time and again, a Congress driven by an ideological, anti-woman agenda wasted time and energy trying to gut the Affordable Care Act (ACA), take away women’s access to abortion care, and block efforts to improve economic security for the country’s hard-working families,” Debra L. Ness, President of the National Partnership for Women & Families, said in a public statement.
“It is a deeply disappointing signal for 2016 that House leaders chose to prioritize the reconciliation bill so early in the new year, and that the House passed it today. The reconciliation bill would gut the ACA, which is the greatest advance for women’s health in a generation, and defund Planned Parenthood, which provides high-quality health care women urgently need.”
UPDATE: President Barack Obama has vetoed the Budget Reconciliation bill and preserved the key aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The bill now moves back to Congress for an opportunity to override the veto. However, the Senate does not have enough votes to bypass the President's veto.
