Democrats vote for House bill diluting ‘Obamacare’

Agence France-Presse

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Allowing insurers to offer policies that do not meet standards of new health care reforms may doom Obamacare, critics say

FACE OF DISAPPOINTMENT. US President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks on the Affordable Care Act in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House while reporters do stand-ups on November 14, 2013 in Washington, DC. AFP/Mandel Ngan

WASHINGTON, USA – Thirty-nine House Democrats defected Friday, November 15 to vote for legislation that would gut significant portions of the new US health care law, the strongest sign yet of party anger over “Obamacare.”

Should the Democrat-run Senate approve the measure, which would allow insurers to offer policies that do not meet requirements of the new health care reforms, the White House has said President Barack Obama would veto it.

But the broad bipartisan vote, even if just political messaging, marked a blow to a president under heavy fire for backpedaling on a pledge that all Americans who liked their health plans could keep them.

Added to that is the flawed rollout of the HealthCare.gov website, through which millions of Americans are expected to sign up for insurance.

“Today, the House made a big, bipartisan statement about the need to make things right” for Americans who have lost their health plans, Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

The Keep Your Health Plan Act, which passed 261-157, addresses what has emerged as a major sticking point in the law known as Obamacare: millions being notified that the insurance plans they purchased on the individual market are being cancelled.

Republicans contend those consumers will be forced into more expensive plans that do not meet their needs.

“It’s cancellation today, sticker shock tomorrow,” said Republican Fred Upton, who introduced the House measure.

A fix which Obama hastily introduced on Thursday would allow insurers to keep offering such coverage only to those consumers already enrolled in the insurance in question.

New consumers would be required to obtain insurance that includes the law’s core protections.

But the House measure opens the sub-standard plans to anyone, and critics say such a change would doom Obamacare.

The measure would create “an entire shadow market of substandard health care plans,” Democrat Henry Waxman told the House.

“The Republicans are on a mission of destruction… and the Upton bill is another weapon in that mission” to repeal Obamacare, added Democrat Sander Levin.

And yet, many Democrats broke ranks, including congresswoman Elizabeth Esty, who said Obama’s failed promise to many policy holders loomed large.

“Today’s bill may not be the perfect solution, but the need for swift corrective action is urgent for many people,” Esty said.

As the House voted, Obama met at the White House with insurance company executives to quell concerns. Some industry leaders have warned that the president’s plan – hastily announced on Thursday – could destabilize the health insurance marketplace.

“This is going to be a collaborative process. We want to make sure we get this done so that in the years to come every American is going to get the kind of affordable health care that they all deserve,” Obama said at the start of the meeting.

House and Senate Democrats are offering several fixes of their own, suggesting the unity among Obama and members of his party was fraying.

But Democrat Nick Rahall, who voted for the Republican measure, downplayed tension between Obama and lawmakers in his party.

“I don’t think he should see it as a growing rift between the two but rather as a need to call everybody together to fix the problem,” Rahall told reporters.

Senate Democrat Mary Landrieu is proposing a solution that allows consumers with sub-standard plans to keep them indefinitely.

But she envisioned that under her bill, those Americans would gradually shift to the more comprehensive plans, whereas the House bill would severely cripple Obamacare.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Upton’s measure was a “Trojan horse” that would “pull the plug on the Affordable Care Act.” – Rappler.com

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