Repealing Obamacare
- Megan Gerrard
- Jan 12, 2017
- 2 min read
The US Senate took the first major step toward repealing the Affordable Care Act after a marathon voting session that started Wednesday evening and extended into early Thursday.
The vote does not repeal President Obama's signature achievement, but it does set the stage for Republicans to clear the first procedural hurdle for repeal of the massive health care law. The bill will now go to the House of Representatives for a vote expected to take place on Friday.
Democrats who opposed repealing Obamacare staged a protest during the vote, breaking with procedural rules by attempting to orally dedicate their vote to people they say would be harmed by repealing Obamacare.
The action came at the end of Wednesday's late night of consecutive votes as part of the body's annual - or sometimes biannual - vote-a-rama. It's first step of a two-part process to fulfil Donald Trump's campaign promise (and Congressional Republicans' longstanding vow) to dismantle the health care law.
The all-nighter was powered by pizza deliveries to the Senate floor. Indiana Republican Rep. Todd Young handed out goodie baskets filled with popcorn and Mountain Dew to reporters in the Senate Press Gallery to kick off the night.
Trump oozed confidence at the news conference on Tuesday, promising his incoming administration would soon reveal a plan to both repeal so-called Obamacare and replace it with legislation to "get health care taken care of in this country".
Republicans plan to get legislation voiding Obama's law and replacing parts of it to Trump by the end of February, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Wednesday on "The Hugh Hewitt Show", a conservative radio program. Other republicans have said they expect the process to take longer.
The 2010 law extended health insurance to some 20 million Americans, prevented insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and steered billions of dollars to states for the Medicaid health program for the poor. Republicans fought the effort tooth and nail and voter opposition to Obamacare helped helped carry the party to impressive wins in 2010, 2014 and last year.
"We're going to do repeal and replace, very complicated stuff," Trump told reporters, adding that both elements would pass virtually at the same time. That promise, however, will be almost impossible to achieve in the complicated web of Congress, where GOP leaders must navigate complex Senate rules, united Democratic opposition and substantive policy disagreements among Republicans.
Some GOP senators have discussed a phase-in of three years or longer to give lawmakers more time to replace Obama's overhaul and make sure people now covered by that law can adjust to a new program.
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