House Republicans Pass Procedural Vote, Start Debate on Resolution Allowing Them to Begin Process of Killing Obamacare

Republicans’ Plan to Pull the Plug on Obamacare With No Replacement Moves Forward

House Republicans have just concluded a procedural vote that ultimately will allow them to begin the process of defunding and otherwise dismantling in full the Affordable Care Act. The final vote tally was 235-188, along party lines. The vote allows them to take up the resolution that Senate Republicans passed in the wee hours of Thursday morning, which directs the House to write a bill repealing Obamacare. The House is currently debating that resolution and a vote later Friday is expected.

The Senate resolution entirely repeals the Affordable Care Act, including the popular provisions that leading Republicans and President-elect Trump promised to keep. They include allowing parents to keep their children on their health care policies until they reach age 26, and banning the practice of using pre-existing conditions to deny coverage. 

Republicans will be using the process of a budget resolution to pull the plug on Obamacare, which allowed the Senate to bypass the 60 vote rule. 

The resolution currently being debated is expected to pass today with little objection from Republicans.

The next step would be for the House to draft a repeal bill, pass that bill, send it to the Senate for passage, then it would go to a joint House-Senate reconciliation committee to iron out and agree upon any changes. After that, the bill would be sent to the President, who has promised to sign it.

There is currently no bill to replace Obamacare, at least none that would come close to protecting the number of Americans the Affordable Care Act has, and none that does so to the same degree across so many different vital areas.

Republicans have been attacking the Affordable Care Act even before its passage in 2010. Recently, they have pointed to claims of increasing premiums, but its clear premiums would have risen higher without the ACA. Further, they have refused to take responsibilities for any issues with the Affordable Care Act, which they own: instead of working with Democrats to make adjustments or fix issues, they refused to pass any legislation to help the ACA, but they did vote to repeal it more than 60 times.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act will leave 30 million people without health care coverage, and will cost U.S. taxpayers $353 billion over the next ten years.

To call your Representative you do not need to know their name. The U.S. Capitol Switchboard will look them up and connect you:  (202) 224-3121. You can also visit the House’s website and look up and contact your representative – look for the “Find Your Representative” box in the upper right corner of the page.

Your representatives are also on Twitter and Facebook.
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