House Votes to Repeal Health Law

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Jan 19th, 2011

House Votes to Repeal Health Law

Kaiser Health News

The new Republican majority in the House of Representatives late Wednesday fulfilled a campaign pledge and passed a bill to repeal the federal health care law. The vote was 245 to 189. However Senate Democrats have said that they will not take up the measure.

Los Angeles Times: "The Republican-led House of Representatives voted Wednesday to repeal the 10-month-old health reform law, a symbolic rebuke of President Obama's signature legislative accomplishment. The move fulfilled a pledge Republicans made to voters in the 2010 campaign for a swift vote to undo what they called the 'job-killing' measure." The Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats, has no plans to take up the measure. But "GOP leaders sought Wednesday to ramp up political pressure on the Senate to act" (Memoli, 1/19).

USA Today: "After a heated midterm election, the Republican-led House easily passed legislation to repeal the nation's sweeping health care law. The vote was 245-189. There were four Democrats that voted for repeal" (Camia, 1/19).

Related coverage from Kaiser Health News:

Health Law Repeal Debate: 22 Freshmen Republicans In Under 4 Minutes - Freshmen Voices: The large class of Republican freshmen swept into office in the November elections had their voices heard in the repeal debate. Republican leadership put a special emphasis on these new members of Congress. Here are excerpts of what some of the freshmen had to say about the law that so many passionately campaigned against (1/19).

Health Law Repeal: The Words Matter - "Word clouds" show the most-frequently used words chosen by Republican and Democratic members, respectively, during Tuesday's floor debate.

Congress' New GOP Doctors Say Health Law Is Wrong Prescription (Carey and Werber Serafini, 1/18) 

Today's earlier news coverage set the scene and outlined some of the political dynamics in play.

Politico: House set to pass health care law repeal
The bill will head next to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has promised to block it. If it did receive a vote, the repeal bill would be unlikely to draw support from even a majority of senators. Even so, House Republican leaders have challenged Reid to give the bill a vote since Democrats, who control the chamber, have little to fear (Budoff Brown, 1/19).

National Journal: Live-Blogging the GOP Attempt to Repeal the Health Care Law
2:15 p.m. Quote of the Day (points based on snarkiness, not partisanship) from Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y.: "I want to just advise people watching at home playing the now-popular drinking game, if you take a shot whenever the Republicans say something that's not true, please assign a designated driver."

12:55 p.m. Time for show and tell-- Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., holds in one hand the 10-page summary of the health care law, and in the other, the complete 2,990-page law. "My friends on the Democratic side are supporting this bill based upon 10 pages of the legislation," he says. "Immediate access to insurance for the uninsured, extension of dependent coverage, no lifetime annual... 10 pages. ... What do you find when you go through the entire bill?" (Boerma, 1/19).

The Associated Press: House To Vote On Repealing Obama's Health Care Law

The new Republican-led House is poised to deliver an emphatic thumbs-down to President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul, with no ready substitute of its own. The House vote Wednesday could turn out to be the high-water mark for repeal, a goal that energized conservative voters in the midterm elections and helped Republicans return to power in Congress. Democrats, who hung on to the Senate, have vowed to block the GOP drive (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/19).

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