The House has voted to repeal Obamacare for the first time since the law’s major components were rolled out.
All but three Republicans present voted to pass the legislation, approving it 239 to 186 on Tuesday. While past repeal votes have typically picked up a handful of Democrats, none voted for the bill this time.
It’s the fourth time the GOP-led House has voted to ditch the entire law, but this time the Senate is likely to take up the legislation, too, now that Republicans have the majority in that chamber.
The debate sounded like it usually does — with Democrats hammering Republicans trying to strip away the law’s insurance subsidies and other benefits, and Republicans contending that the law remains unpopular among the public and has raised insurance costs for some people or cost them hours of employment.
“The American people continue to oppose the president’s healthcare law, and today House Republicans will stand with them again,” said Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee.
“I think we’ve reached the point where we’ve exhausted the legislative process,” said Rep. Charlie Rangel, a New York Democrat. “And the Senate is preparing to join them in this insanity.
But this time, Republicans included in their bill language directing four committees to come up with an Obamacare replacement. When the House first voted for repeal in 2011, Speaker John Boehner said he’d ask members to come up with a replacement plan but didn’t include that language in the legislation.
The current bill, sponsored by Rep. Bradley Byrne of Alabama, directs the leaders of the Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, Education and the Workforce and Judiciary committees to propose healthcare reforms but doesn’t set a deadline.
Democrats mocked that provision, noting that Republicans have previously said they’ll vote on their own version of healthcare reform but have been unable to reach agreement on a single plan. The House has voted more than 60 times to repeal or change parts or all of the law, but haven’t voted on a bill to replace the entire law.
“Did they come over with a hammer or paint to change it?” asked Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state, top Democrat on the Ways and Means health subcommittee. “No, it was always ‘knock the house down.'”
President Obama, who countered the vote Tuesday by highlighting stories of people who say they’ve benefitted from the law, has said he would veto the measure should it also be passed by the Senate.
