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House to Vote on Health Bill: Will Republicans Be Able to Repeal Obamacare?
House Passes G.O.P. Bill to Repeal Obamacare
(about 2 hours later)
■ The House will vote early Thursday afternoon on legislation to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act.
Now: The House on Thursday passed the Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Read more or see our vote tally.
■ Republican lawmakers emerged from a G.O.P. conference meeting convinced they had the votes to pass the American Health Care Act.
■ After weeks of fits and starts, the House voted to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act.
The House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, told reporters on Wednesday night that Republicans do indeed have enough votes to pass the bill.
■ President Trump announced he will hold a victory news conference in the Rose Garden.
And undecided members are breaking toward the bill.
■ The legislation still faces steep hurdles in the Senate.
Yet suspense remains. Another Republican in a swing district, Representative Dave Reichert of Washington, announced his opposition.
The House on Thursday narrowly approved a bill to repeal and replace major parts of the Affordable Care Act, as Republicans recovered from their earlier failures and moved a step closer to delivering their promise to reshape American health care without mandated insurance coverage.
If all members vote, and all Democrats oppose the bill, Republicans can lose no more than 22 members to approve the repeal.
The vote, 217-to-213, on President Trump’s 105th day in office, keeps alive the Republican dream of unwinding the signature legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama. The House measure faces profound uncertainty in the Senate, where the legislation’s steep spending cuts will almost certainly be moderated. Any legislation that can get through the Senate will again have to clear the House and its conservative majority.
In recent days, roughly 20 Republicans have said they opposed the measure, but that number shrank slightly on Wednesday.
Read more »
Numerous members say they remain undecided.
Shortly before the voting began, President Trump wrote on Twitter that should the bill pass, Republicans would be gathering Thursday afternoon in the Rose Garden for a statement.
House leaders have made changes to their bill in an attempt to win passage.
That news conference is expected to begin at 3:30 p.m.
One amendment, drafted by Representative Tom MacArthur, Republican of New Jersey, would allow states to apply for waivers to opt out of certain insurance requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
Despite the passage of the bill in the House, the Affordable Care Act will remain in place — at least for now.
That won over the conservative House Freedom Caucus. But it worried more moderate House members, who feared it would make insurance unaffordable for people with pre-existing medical conditions.
The repeal bill is not likely to be met with great celebration in the Senate.
Another amendment, offered by Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, aimed to ease those concerns. It would provide $8 billion over five years to help states cover people with pre-existing conditions.
As House Republicans entered their conference meeting in the basement of the Capitol on Thursday morning, reporters peppered them with a single question: Have you read the bill?
That’s because when the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, Republicans accused Democrats of not reading the thousand-plus-page bill.
But the rushed vote Thursday is coming just hours after the bill text was even written — and before the Congressional Budget Office has had a chance to officially declare the cost and impact of the most recent version.
Democrats are not pleased.
But they do not have the numbers to stop the bill. All they can do is air their grievances and hope enough Republicans heed their warnings and vote against it.
Expect to hear complaints from Democrats on two fronts: The substance of the bill and the process by which Republicans are passing it.
For one thing, the vote will occur without a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper on Capitol Hill.
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, complained on Wednesday night about what he described as “fixes upon fixes to fix the fixes to fix the fixes.”
This process, Mr. McGovern said, is a mess. “I don’t know how anybody can defend it,” he added.
Even if the House passes the bill on Thursday, the Affordable Care Act will remain in place — at least for now.
The repeal bill would then head over to the Senate, where it is not likely to be met with great celebration.
Yes, Republican senators share their House colleagues’ desire to repeal major parts of the Obama-era health law.
Yes, Republican senators share their House colleagues’ desire to repeal major parts of the Obama-era health law.
But they might not agree on exactly which parts.
But they may not agree on exactly which parts.
Already, Republicans in the Senate have aired a variety of concerns about the House plan, including how it would affect states that expanded Medicaid under the health law and whether it would raise premiums to unaffordable levels for older Americans.
Already, Republicans in the Senate have aired a variety of concerns about the House plan, including how it would affect states that expanded Medicaid under the health law and whether it would raise premiums to unaffordable levels for older Americans.
In other words, expect to see plenty of changes to the House bill — and, in the long run, plenty more fits and starts.
In other words, expect to see plenty of changes to the House bill — and, in the long run, plenty more fits and starts.
