Congress sends the White House a bill to repeal key parts of Obamacare and pause federal funding of Planned Parenthood
Today the House of Representatives passed a bill that Republicans are calling their “best shot” at repealing the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, and ending federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
Although the bill has now passed the House and Senate, Republicans won’t succeed. President Obama will veto the bill and Republicans won’t come close to overriding his veto.
But this bill, the special yearly reconciliation bill, is different from the dozens of other Obamacare repeal bills they have voted on because it’s the first one they were be able to pass through both chambers and present to the President.
What’s in the bill
Repealing Obamacare, or the key parts of it — The Republicans’ bill, Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015, doesn’t actually repeal Obamacare in its entirety. Instead it goes after some of the key features of Obamacare that are necessary to make the whole system work. It would:
- Restrict the federal government from operating health care exchanges
- Phase out funding for subsidies to help lower and middle-income individuals afford insurance through the health care exchanges
- Eliminate tax penalties for individuals who do not purchase health insurance and employers with 50 or more employees who do not provide insurance plans
- Eliminate taxes on medical devices and the so-called “Cadillac tax” on the most expensive health care plans
- Phase out an expansion of Medicaid over a two-year period
Ending federal funding to Planned Parenthood — The bill would also end federal funding of Planned Parenthood for one year by prohibiting Medicaid reimbursements for Planned Parenthood services. In its place, the bill would increase funding for a community health program.
Federal funding for Planned Parenthood supports its reproductive health, maternal health, and child health services — but not its abortion services or the subsequent transfer of fetal tissue that may follow, which are what brought the organization into focus last year. Existing law prohibits federal funds from being used for abortions, and the bill also does not address the organization’s practices regarding fetal tissue, which were made legal in 1993.
How we got here
The Republicans have been going through the special “budget reconciliation” process to advance this bill — a special set of rules that the Senate majority can use once per year. (This is the same reconciliation bill we covered in the fall.)
The rules allow a bill to pass the Senate without having it subject to filibusters and without it having to reach the usual 3/5ths majority to pass the Senate (a simple majority of 51 votes is all that will be needed).
But in order to make the bill qualify under the budget reconciliation rules, the Republicans had to limit the bill’s provisions to those that are directly relevant to budgetary issues. Eliminating the mandates for individuals to have insurance and employers to provide it was ruled not directly relevant to the budget, so the Senate changed the bill to eliminate the tax penalties that are used for enforcing those provisions of the ACA.
The bill was originally passed in the House on October 23, 2015, by a vote of 240–189, then it was amended by the Senate because of reconciliation rules and passed in that chamber on December 3, 2015, by a vote of 52–47:
That sent the bill back to the House, which voted on it tonight, agreeing to the Senate’s changes to the bill.
Veto
On December 2, 2015, the White House issued a statement outlining the reasons President Obama will veto the bill.
“By repealing numerous, key elements of current law, this legislation would take away critical benefits and health care coverage from hard working middle class families,” the White House states. “The bill also would remove policies that are expected to help slow the growth in health care costs and that have improved the quality of care patients receive.”
The Republicans in Congress can attempt to override the President’s veto, but they would need the support of 2/3rds of the members of both chambers, and they will fall far short of that mark, if they attempt it, based on the outcomes of the votes on this bill that have already occurred.
About Reconciliation
The reconciliation process traditionally has been used by lawmakers to reduce the deficit through revenue increases (tax hikes) and cuts to entitlements (e.g. Medicare and Medicaid, but not Social Security which cannot be changed under a reconciliation bill). The process has been used in the past to enact both tax cuts and tax increases, reforms to student loan programs, and even some minor pieces of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). Earlier last year there was talk of using it to pass a tax code overhaul that Obama and the Republicans could conceivably come to an agreement on.
