The House Passes A Partial Repeal and Replacement Bill of ObamaCare On A Party Line Vote

Ghetty

The House passed a revised bill to repeal parts of and replace portions of the Affordable Care Act today.  The vote was along party lines and was not without drama during roll call, where Republicans were strong in getting the needed amount of votes to pass the bill. Repealing ObamaCare is one of the Republican's top legislative priorities.

One of the hot ticket items that remained a point of contention through the negotiation process, the subsidy. Currently, when someone can not "afford" health insurance they apply for insurance using subsidy available from the government or pay the full amount and receive subsidy back, according to their income when they file their taxes. So, in this particular revision of the ACA, the subsidy is replaced by a system of tax credits. As the Senate moves to vote on the House of Representative passed bill and as time passes it will become more clear what those "credits" look like. The other hot topic is defunding Planned Parenthood, which the revision to ACA aims to accomplish as well.

When the Democrats passed Affordable Care Act, they did so on a party line vote. Not one republican voted for the bill back in 2010. Much like that same instance, today in the House of Representatives there wasn't a Democrat that voted to repeal portions of their beloved ACA bill.

Most Republicans, and Donald J. Trump himself, ran on a Repeal or a Repeal and Replace ObamaCare platform. Today, as the House voted, Trump tweeted that the plan "will lower premiums and deductibles - and be great healthcare!"

Speaker Ryan addressed the House before the vote and thanked Trump for his "steadfast leadership" pressing forward and doubling down that lawmakers were ending the "failed experiment" of ObamaCare.

As always, Nancy Pelosi, D-CA had nothing nice to say, calling this action "deconstruction of government" and saying the legislation "is a stupid bill."

I ponder about a few things. In what turn of coat did Ryan suddenly come to the alter and determine that Trump is his leader and President now? Did someone have a chat with Ryan about unity? What kind of deals were made to get him to push this amendment so passionately. On the flip, one might wonder why legislation that aims to reduce the sky rocketing impact of failed legislation is being called "stupid" by a top democrat. In what way is an amendment that will reduce costs all the way around a bad thing?  It seems that, like always, Congress is in the gig of government to get what they can out of it, rather than in it for the people and community servitude.

The Guts:

As reported by https://www.govtrack.us/
A new deal among the Republican factions was reached. The changes to the AHCA, as reported by the Rules committee, are:

• States may opt-out of providing the ACA’s essential health benefits. (This requirement was already dropped in the bill for Medicaid but not for the individual market.)
• States may opt-out of requiring premiums to be the same for all people of the same age, so while individuals with pre-existing conditions must be offered health insurance there is no limit on the cost of that insurance. A new $8 billion fund would help lower premiums for these individuals.
• States may opt-out of limiting premium differences based on age.
• There would be a new $15 billion fund for risk sharing to help states lower premiums

The bill would keep intact much of the ACA. As the Republican website readthebill.gop explains, the AHCA would "preserve vital patient protections" created by the ACA:

• The AHCA would keep the ACA's requirement that dependents can stay "on their parents' plan until they are 26."

• The exchanges (aka marketplaces) run by the federal government and states, which listed individual and small business health insurance plans, would continue as under the ACA.
• The AHCA would also continue to provide subsidies for premiums that are based on income, although the formula would be completely different and the subsidy would likely be much less for young, low-income Americans.

 What would be expanded 

•  Contribution limits to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) would be increased to encourage their use. With HSAs, you can put aside some of your income for medical expenses and not pay taxes on it. (More on that here.) 

• Under the AHCA, federal subsidies for paying premiums could be used to pay for insurance both from and not from the exchanges

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It will take time for the digging to happen and the details and analysis to work through. Do not believe every headline and cry baby story of death and doom. Lets all stay level headed and watch for the evidence to pour forth from the fountain of truth.

The next step, the bill moves to the Senate and all eyes will be watching.

Freedom fighters, keep vigilant, watching your congressional members and turn up the heat on the topics that matter to you most.

In Liberty,

Erin Cruz

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Her are 17 of the 20 Notable Republicans who voted against the amendment:

Vote	Party	Representative	District
No	R	Biggs, Andy	AZ 5th
No	R	Coffman, Mike	CO 6th
No	R	Massie, Thomas	KY 4th
No	R	LoBiondo, Frank	NJ 2nd
No	R	Smith, Chris	NJ 4th
No	R	Lance, Leonard	NJ 7th

No	R	Katko, John	NY 24th
No	R	Jones, Walter	NC 3rd
No	R	Turner, Michael	OH 10th
No	R	Joyce, David	OH 14th
No	R	Costello, Ryan	PA 6th
No	R	Meehan, Patrick	PA 7th

No	R	Dent, Charles	PA 15th
No	R	Hurd, Will	TX 23rd
No	R	Comstock, Barbara	VA 10th
No	R	Herrera Beutler, Jaime	WA 3rd
No	R	Reichert, David	WA 8th