Despite facing a veto threat from President Barack Obama, Senate Republicans voted Thursday to approve legislation that would repeal key provisions of the healthcare reform law known as Obamacare. Prior attempts to pass similar bills have been shot down by Democrats before they managed to reach Obama’s desk.
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Ahead of the vote, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ken., derided Obamacare as a direct attack on the Middle Class that is riddled with higher costs and broken promises.
Democrats have argued that millions of people now have insurance and have seen their health coverage improved under the law.
It zeros out the penalties on individuals who do not buy insurance and employers who do not offer health insurance.
“What we are doing is listening to our constituents, who’ve told us that they’ve had one bad experience after another with Obamacare”, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said according to The Washington Times.
Conservative House Republicans have said they want some “pro-life” language, such as limits on Planned Parenthood, in the funding bill in order for them to vote for it.
The vote comes at a time when some plans sold via PPACA insurance exchanges have been struggling with weak enrollment, higher-than-expected medical costs, and increased premiums.
In addition to repealing Obamacare, the new bill would defund Planned Parenthood of the roughly $450 million the government budgets yearly for the organization.
GOP lawmakers said the bill could serve as a bridge to a future Republican health care law.
While they favor cutting off federal funds to Planned Parenthood, some conservatives said this week that another approach could be to let states exclude abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from Medicaid payments. The group has said the videos were deceptively doctored and that it’s done nothing illegal. “What they got instead was the cold shoulder of indifference”. Obama’s law was enacted five years ago; Republicans haven’t produced a detailed proposal to replace it. “I’ll take that to the polls and we’ll talk about it until the cows come home”.
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But the bill still needs to be approved by the House of Representatives. “We have a mandate, I believe, to repeal this bad law”.
