U.S. House voted 244-185 to repeal health care law

Washington, DC, United States (4E) – President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare reforms were once again vetoed by the Republican dominated House of Representatives on Wednesday. The vote was seen by some as a symbolic attempt to drum up opposition to the controversial legislation ahead of the general elections in November.

During the vote, five House Democrats sided by the Republicans’ position.

The bill, H.R. 6079, marked the 33rd time the GOP members have voted to revoke partly or entirely the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. However, the measure has little chance of passing in the Senate, where Democrats have the advantage in numbers.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA.) called this latest move by the House Republicans as a futile attempt to oppose an important piece of legislation that can be likened to Medicare and Social Security.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has made it clear that the Democrats in the Senate will block any effort to repeal the law, although House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) stated that the House bill will give Senators another crack at repealing the law that the Supreme Court upheld last week in its ruling.

Senate last time voted a repeal measure in February 2011 where every Democratic senator voted to keep the law, while all Republicans pushed for its repeal. Even the White House on Monday also said that the president intends to use his veto should the bill make it through the Senate.

Obama’s health care reform law was passed in 2010 and called for nearly every American to purchase health insurance while disallowing insurance companies to deny coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.

The bill consists of hundreds of pages, including areas such as student loan interest and other items, that have some concerned about what the bill what do to health care and other areas.

Even with the attempt to repeal the law, implementation may take some time before the provisions will start to take effect. A new Medicare tax will kick in on January 1, which will raise nearly $40bn by 2018. Meanwhile, a 2.3 per cent tax on sale of medical devices will be collected beginning January 1, where the administration eyes $3.4bn in revenues for the government by 2019.

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