Congress Passes Repeal Of Obamacare Giving President Trump His Promised Victory • Now The End Begins

Congress Passes Repeal Of Obamacare Giving President Trump His Promised Victory

"A lot of us have waited seven years to cast this vote," House Speaker
Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said shortly before the voting began. "Many of us are
here because we pledged to cast this vote: to repeal and replace
Obamacare."

by Geoffrey Grider May 4, 2017

After
years of debate, the House on Thursday voted to repeal key parts of the
Affordable Care Act and replace them with new provisions

The vote, which President Donald Trump was planning to tout as a big victory,
sends the Republican-sponsored bill to gut Obamacare to the Senate for
consideration. But winning approval for the bill could be even more
difficult in the Senate than it has been in the House, where Republican
leaders struggled for nearly two months to wrangle enough votes in their
caucus to secure its passage.

The bill passed by a vote of 217 to 213, which was one more “yes” vote that was needed for passage.

All 193 Democrats voting opposed the bill. They were joined by 20 Republicans voting “no.”

“A
lot of us have waited seven years to cast this vote,” House Speaker
Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said shortly before the voting began. “Many of us are
here because we pledged to cast this vote: to repeal and replace
Obamacare.”

“This bill delivers the promises we have made to the American people,” Ryan said.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., told MSNBC shortly before the vote began, “We were elected to do this.”

After
the vote, protesters outside the Capitol building yelled, “Shame,
shame!” at members of Congress walking down the front steps.

The
bill — which would dramatically change the way the federal government
funds purchases of individual health plans and Medicaid — is expected to
dramatically increase the number of people without health insurance if
enacted into law.

Thursday’s vote came a week after the bill was
amended to include a provision that won support from conservative
holdouts. That provision would, under certain conditions, undo
Obamacare’s ban on letting insurers charge people with pre-existing
health conditions more for their insurance plans than healthy people.

Moderate
Republicans initially blanched at that provision. But on Wednesday a
number of them agreed to support the bill after the addition of another
amendment that would increase funding designed to reduce the impact of
the higher premiums on people with pre-existing conditions. Analysis
questions how far that funding may go to cut costs for those Americans.

The
bill, known as the American Health Care Act, would remove the Obamacare
rule requiring most Americans to have health coverage of some kind. source





Congress Passes Repeal Of Obamacare Giving President Trump His Promised Victory • Now The End Begins