STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Five Democrats join the Republican majority in passing the repeal measure
- The repeal measure has no chance of passing the Senate
- The vote is the latest of more than 30 House GOP attempts to undermine Obamacare
- Democrats say the vote is a wasted effort since the Supreme Court ruling
The vote amounted to
political theater because the measure is sure to die in the
Democratic-led Senate and the White House has made clear Obama would
veto any repeal.
Five Democrats joined the
Republican majority in the 244-185 vote. Democratic leaders said a
handful of their caucus members facing tough re-election battles in
November might side with the Republicans on the volatile issue.
Wednesday's vote was the
latest of more than 30 House GOP efforts to undermine the 2010
Affordable Care Act, including previous Republican moves to repeal the
measure or cut funding for various provisions.
Prior to the final vote,
the House rejected a Democratic motion that would have required any
legislator supporting the repeal measure to give up government-provided
health care.
In debate on the issue
this week, Democrats noted the Supreme Court ruled on June 28 to uphold
the health care law's constitutionality, which they said should end talk
of repeal and instead inspire bipartisan efforts to address the
nation's weak economic recovery.
"With millions still out
of work and families struggling to make ends meet, Republicans are
responding how? By voting to take away critical health care protections
for people," Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 House Democrat,
told reporters.
Republicans, however,
said the issue remains a priority for their constituents and defended
the need to combat what they call a threat to patient-focused health
care and the economy.
"It is not a game to be played," declared House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Virginia, before the voting started.
Earlier, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told CNN that health care reform "happens to be the seminal issue of our time."
"Those of us who want
patient-centered health care have had two years to repeal it,"
Hensarling said. "I think it's kind of unreasonable to think we're going
to go away."
Opinion polls indicate
public confusion on the issue amid the sharp political divide. A CNN/ORC
International poll conducted June 28-July 1 showed 52% of respondents
favor all or most provisions of the health care law, while at the same
time, 51% want Congress to repeal the entire measure.
On both issues,
Democrats were strongly in favor of keeping the law intact while
Republicans were equally supportive of repealing or dismantling it.
Independents reflected the conflicting findings of the poll, with 56%
favoring repeal while 51% support all or most of the law's provisions.
At committee hearings
and on the House floor Tuesday, the debate on the repeal measure
devolved into repetitive opposing claims about the health care law.
"This law is historic,
but for all the wrong reasons," argued Rep. Sam Graves, R-Missouri. "It
reaches too far into the personal decisions of Americans and it puts a
heavy burden on our economy and small businesses. It's an example of big
government at its absolute worst."
Rep. Debbie Wasserman
Schultz of Florida, the Democratic National Committee chair, noted the
multiple previous House votes to repeal all or part of the health reform
law.
"It is time to stop the tantrums, grow up, and work together on Americans' number one priority -- creating jobs," she said.
Another Democrat, Rep.
Lynn Woolsey of California, accused Republicans of "serving more
baloney" regarding the health care law, while GOP members complained it
was Obama and Democrats who misled the public on the the measure's cost
and impact.
Some in Congress are
urging state governments to opt out of the health care law's provisions
setting up health insurance exchanges and expanding Medicaid coverage
for the poor and disabled. So far, a handful of states have said they
will hold off on both provisions.
The exchanges will
provide consumers and businesses with options for obtaining health
coverage, as required under the law's individual mandate. Both the
exchanges and the Medicaid expansion are intended to reduce the number
of uninsured Americans.
By opting out, state
governments hope to avoid a possible increased financial burden as the
health care law gets fully implemented beginning in 2014. Opponents of
the law also want to obstruct progress on implementation as much as
possible while they try to get it repealed or dismantled.
"It starts a process
that we believe has to be repealed because we can't afford it,"
conservative Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, told CNN on Wednesday.
He is leading the state opt-out effort.
"The bottom line is, our
country is broke," DeMint said. "This is going to cost trillions of
dollars. It's going to diminish the quality and access to health care."
However, analysts and
industry experts contend health care reform will happen out of
necessity, whether through the Affordable Care Act or the momentum it
already has created since being passed over two years ago.
According to a report by
PricewaterhouseCoopers' Health Research Institute, 14 states and the
District of Columbia have made "significant progress" toward
implementing reforms, while another 19 states have made "moderate
progress," leaving 17 states -- or about a third -- that have yet to
change their laws or take other steps toward implementation.
The report, titled
"Implications of the U.S. Supreme Court Ruling on Healthcare," says all
players in the health care industry -- state governments, hospitals,
insurance companies, employers and drug companies -- need to participate
in the emerging reform process or risk getting left behind.
DeMint appeared to
concede that reality Wednesday, saying the goal is to "give the states
more flexibility to help individuals own their own health insurance,
policies that they can keep from job to job, and hopefully into
retirement. And a lot of states have begun that process."
He also echoed an
emerging GOP talking point that praises what Obama and Democrats sought
to achieve through health care reform pushed through Congress with no
Republican support.
"We appreciate some of
the goals of the president," DeMint said. "We need every American to
have access to affordable health insurance. The best way to do that is
at ... the state level that respects the relationship between the
patient and the doctor."
Democrats also point to a
state solution that worked -- the health care reforms implemented by
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney when he was governor of
Massachusetts.
Throughout Tuesday's
committee hearings and floor debate on health care reform, Democratic
legislators repeatedly noted how Romney's Massachusetts plan served as a
model for the federal plan Republicans seek to eliminate, including the
individual mandate detested by conservatives.
Romney now pledges to
repeal the federal law, a necessary position for any Republican in
today's hyper-partisan GOP political environment. He argues his
Massachusetts law was right for the state but never intended as a
federal solution, but he also calls for keeping some popular provisions
of what is known as Obamacare, such as preventing insurance companies
from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.
The health care issue
has been among the most divisive of Obama's presidency. Conservative
anger over the measure helped launch the tea party movement, and
conservative groups joined with industry groups to fund a giant public
pressure campaign against the legislation.
Some provisions already
have brought popular benefits, such as the one on pre-existing
conditions. The bulk of the health care law will take effect in 2014.
In its ruling, the
Supreme Court said the individual mandate -- the requirement that all
people have insurance -- is constitutional under the government's taxing
authority, and Republicans have jumped on that to characterize the
provision as a tax increase on middle-class Americans.
Obama and Democrats
respond that only people who can afford health insurance but choose not
to get it would have to pay, amounting to about 1% of the population.
The continued GOP
attacks seek to bolster public opposition to the law and force Democrats
to publicly defend it. Republicans have made clear that the goal is to
inspire voters to rally against the law and Obama in the November
presidential election.
"If you give us more
elected representatives to fix this problem, we will fix this problem in
2013," House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said
Tuesday in an interview with CNBC.
The White House formally
notified House leaders on Monday that Obama will veto any repeal bill
that manages to reach his desk, saying repeal "would cost millions of
hard-working middle-class families the security of affordable health
coverage and care they deserve."
"The last thing the
Congress should do is refight old political battles and take a massive
step backward by repealing basic protections that provide security for
the middle class," a White House statement said.
But Republicans called for eliminating the law and starting over on the complex issue that affects every American.
"That's why we've voted
over 30 times to repeal it, defund it, replace it. And we are resolved
to have this law go away and we're gonna do everything we can to stop
it," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday.
How will you be affected by the health care ruling? Share your thoughts in the iReport Debate.
CNN's Paul Steinhauser, Dana Bash, Alan Silverleib, Deirdre Walsh and Ashley Killough contributed to this report.
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