House OKs GOP health bill, a step toward Obamacare repeal
WASHINGTON - Relieved Republicans muscled their health care bill through the House Thursday, taking their biggest step toward dismantling the Obama health care overhaul since Donald Trump took office. They won passage only after overcoming their own divisions that nearly sank the measure six weeks ago.
Beaten but unbowed, Democrats insisted Republicans will pay at election time for repealing major provisions of the law. They sang the pop song "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye" to the GOP lawmakers as the end of the voting neared.
The measure skirted through the House by a thin 217-213 vote, as all voting Democrats and 20 mostly moderate Republican holdouts voted no. A defeat would have been politically devastating for President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, said he voted against the Republican bill because it will cause healthcare costs to skyrocket and allow insurers to price people with pre-existing conditions out of coverage.
“That's not protection, it's extortion,” he said in a press release.
Thompson cited an estimate by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities that healthcare costs in his district, which includes Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati and Sonoma Valley, would rise an average of more than $4,000 per year by 2020 for people enrolled in Covered California.
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said the “narrow, party-line passage” of the bill will take away health coverage from 24 million Americans, calling it a disaster for his constituents and for “families all across the country.”
“At its core, TrumpCare is a massive tax break for the wealthiest of Americans, with the Republican Congress playing the role of a ‘reverse Robin Hood': robbing health care from millions of Americans in order to hand out $600 billion in tax breaks to our country's richest people and largest corporations,” Huffman said in a press release.
Passage was a product of heavy lobbying by the White House and Republicans leaders, plus late revisions that nailed down the final supporters needed. Leaders rallied rank-and-file lawmakers at a closed-door meeting early Thursday by playing "Eye of the Tiger," the rousing 1980s song from the "Rocky III" film.
"Many of us are here because we pledged to cast this very vote," Ryan said. He added, "Are we going to keep the promises that we made, or are we going to falter?"
The bill now faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where even GOP lawmakers say major changes are likely. In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the House vote "an important step" to repealing Obama's law and said, "Congress will continue to act on legislation to provide more choices and freedom in health care decisions."
Republicans have promised to erase President Barack Obama's law since its 2010 enactment, but this year - with Trump in the White House and in full control of Congress - is their first real chance to deliver. But polls have shown a public distaste for the repeal effort and a gain in popularity for Obama's statute, and Democrats - solidly opposing the bill - said Republicans would pay a price in next year's congressional elections.
"You vote for this bill, you'll have walked the plank from moderate to radical," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., warning Republicans that voters would punish them. "You will glow in the dark on this one."
The bitter health care battle dominated the Capitol even as Congress sent Trump a bipartisan $1 trillion measure financing federal agencies through September. The Senate approved that bill 79-18 a day after the House passed it easily, heading off a weekend federal shutdown that both parties wanted to avoid.
Ryan canceled a March vote on the health care bill because disgruntled conservatives said the measure was too meek while GOP moderates said its cuts were too deep.
He abandoned a second attempt for a vote last week. As late as Tuesday The Associated Press counted 21 GOP opponents - one short of the number that would kill the measure if all Democrats voted no.
Over the past few weeks, the measure was revamped to attract most hard-line conservatives and some GOP centrists. In a final tweak, leaders added a modest pool of money to help people with pre-existing medical conditions afford coverage, a concern that caused a near-fatal rebellion among Republicans in recent days.
The bill would eliminate tax penalties Obama's law which has clamped down on people who don't buy coverage and it erases tax increases in the Affordable Care Act on higher-earning people and the health industry. It cuts the Medicaid program for low-income people and lets states impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. It transforms Obama's subsidies for millions buying insurance - largely based on people's incomes and premium costs - into tax credits that rise with consumers' ages.
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