Defying veto threat, House OKs health law change
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| Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, second from left, and other members of the House of Representatives leave after the Republican-controlled House voted to let insurance companies sell individual health coverage to all comers, even if it falls short of the required standards in "Obamacare,” Friday, Nov. 15, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The overall vote was 261-157 on a measure that supporters said would ease the plight of millions of consumers reeling from cancellation notices. Those cancellations have been arriving from companies despite President Barack Obama's oft-made promise that anyone who liked his plan could keep it. The bill now goes to an uncertain fate in the Senate. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- Brushing aside a White House veto threat, the
Republican-controlled House voted by a healthy bipartisan majority
Friday to weaken a core component of "Obamacare" and permit the sale of
individual health coverage that falls short of requirements in the law.
In
all, 39 Democrats broke ranks and supported the legislation, a total
that underscored the growing importance of the issue in the weeks since
millions of cancellation notices went out to consumers covered by plans
deemed inadequate under government rules.
The
final vote was 261-157 as lawmakers clashed over an issue likely to be
at the heart of next year's midterm elections. The measure faces an
uncertain fate in the Senate, where Democrats seeking re-election in
2014 are leading a move for generally similar legislation.
"For
the last six weeks the White House stood idly by ignoring the pleas of
millions," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy
and Commerce Committee and lead sponsor of the legislation.
"Our
straightforward, one-page bill says, if you like your current coverage,
you should be able to keep it. The president should heed his own advice
and work with us, the Congress, as the founders intended, not around
the legislative process."
But Democrats said
the measure was just another in a long line of attacks on the health
care bill from Republicans who have voted repeatedly to repeal it.
"It
would take away the core protections of that law. It creates an entire
shadow market of substandard health care plans," said Rep. Henry Waxman
of California.
The vote came shortly before
President Barack Obama welcomed insurance company CEOs to a White House
meeting, and one day after he announced a shift toward making good on
his oft-repeated promise that anyone liking his pre-Obamacare coverage
would be able to keep it.
In brief opening
remarks, he did not refer to the House vote, and showed no give in his
commitment to the program known by his name. "Because of choice and
competition, a whole lot of Americans who have always seen health
insurance out of reach are going to be in a position to purchase it," he
said.
The events capped a remarkable series
of politically inspired maneuvers in recent days. The president and
lawmakers in both parties have sought to position themselves as allies
of consumers who are receiving cancellation notices - yet have made no
move to cooperate on legislation that could require those consumers'
coverage to be renewed if they wanted to keep it.
Neither
Obama's new policy nor the bill passed in the House would ensure that
anyone whose policy is canceled will be able to keep it. Instead, both
would permit insurance companies to sell coverage renewals if they wish -
subject to approval by state insurance commissioners.
The
White House meeting came as the industry and state commissioners began
adjusting to the president's one-day-old change in policy.
Under
the shift, Obama said insurers should be permitted to continue to sell
to existing customers individual coverage plans that would be deemed
substandard under the health care law. Without the change, many existing
plans would have been banned beginning next year, and the president's
announcement was an attempt to quell a public and political furor
triggered by millions of cancellation notices.
The
House measure went one step further. It would give insurance firms the
ability to sell individual plans to new as well as existing customers,
even if the coverage falls short of the law's requirements.
Democrats
sought to substitute a plan of their own that consisted largely of
Obama's new policy, but failed on a party-line vote.
Even
so, the combination of the president's announcement and his party's
alternative apparently siphoned off a large number of Democratic votes
from the GOP measure.
In a veto threat
Thursday night, the White House accused Republicans of seeking to
"sabotage the health
care law," and said their measure would allow
"insurers to continue to sell new plans that deploy practices such as
not offering coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, charging
women more than men, and continuing yearly caps on the amount of care
that enrollees receive." A veto would come into play only if both houses
approve legislation and send it to the White House for the president's
signature.
Political calculations were evident as Obamacare produced yet more controversy.
The
political arms of both parties in both houses churned out attacks all
week that underscore the importance of the issue in the 2014 elections.
Additionally, Obama made an unusual attempt on Thursday to shelter any
Democrat who may have said when the bill was under consideration in 2010
- as he did - that anyone wanting to keep current coverage would be
permitted to.
"They were entirely sincere about it," he said of the lawmakers. "It's not on them, it's on us."
In
the Senate, a handful of Democrats who face tough re-election races
next year, led by Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, are supporting
legislation to require insurance companies to renew policies cancelled
because of the law.
Under the law, plans
generally are required to meet numerous conditions to qualify. Among
them, they would have to accept all customers, regardless of
pre-existing conditions, would be limited in additional premiums they
could charge on the basis of age and could not cap lifetime benefits.
They also would have to provide coverage in a wide range of areas -
doctor and hospital care for adults and children, laboratory services,
preventive coverage and prescription drugs among them.
The
cancellation issue is only part of the woes confronting the president
and his allies as they struggle to sustain the health care law.
Obama has repeatedly apologized for a dismal launch of http://www.healthcare.gov
, which consumers in 36 states were supposed to use beginning on Oct. 1
to sign up for new coverage. The website is so riddled with problems
that the administration disclosed earlier this week that fewer than
27,000 signups have been completed - a number that Republicans noted is
dwarfed by the flood of cancellations issued due to the law.
Compounding
the administration's misery, the poor quality of the website has made
it that much harder for consumers receiving cancellation notices to shop
for alternative plans.
It is unclear what, if
anything, the administration is prepared to do to alleviate the threat
of a break in coverage for those consumers.
