House approves ‘Keep Your Plan’ ObamaCare bill; 39 Dems defect
November 15, 2013, 01:36 pm
House approves ‘Keep Your Plan’ ObamaCare bill; 39 Dems defect
By Pete Kasperowicz
The House passed legislation on Friday that allows insurance companies to offer health plans that were cancelled for not meeting new requirements under ObamaCare.
Thirty-nine Democrats broke with their party's leaders and backed the bill despite a veto threat by the White House, highlighting the political problem the issue has come for President Obama’s party. Only four Republicans opposed it.
The House approved the "Keep Your Health Plan Act" in a 261-157 vote.
Obama on Thursday announced he would take executive action that would allow insurance companies to offer the old plans for an additional year.
That likely prevented a larger wave of Democratic votes in favor of the bill sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.).
The vote is a further blow to Obama, who was forced on Thursday to admit that new standards under the healthcare law are forcing millions of people into new and often more expensive health insurance plans. Obama repeatedly said that under ObamaCare people could keep their plans if they liked them.
Most of the Democrats who defected from their party face tough reelection campaigns next year. Republicans have promised the 2014 midterm elections will be all about the healthcare law, which polls show is unpopular.
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“This one on the floor today really takes the cake, because it [would], essentially, pull the plug on the Affordable Care Act,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) explained the problem by equating the canceled plans to old cars without modern safety features, and said allowing these plans to exist would make ObamaCare unworkable.
“If anyone who wants to can buy one of these cars without an air bag, or cars without seat belts — and that's what these plans are — then you will find that the new marketplaces don't have enough people in them,” he said. “And when they don't have enough people in them, the rates will rise.”
House Energy & Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said this would allow a “shadow market” of old plans to undermine ObamaCare plans.
But Republicans said that “shadow market” is just another term for the market that sells more affordable plans that people want.
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Just before the final vote, Democrats tried to substitute Upton's bill with a Democratic alternative that would extend canceled plans for just a year, similar to Obama's time-limited administrative fix. But the GOP-led House was able to kill that proposal by raising a point of order against it, which argued the Democratic alternative was not germane.
That was upheld in a 229-191 vote to turn away the Democratic appeal of that ruling.
With their first attempt ruled out of order, Democrats tried again with an amended proposal, but this was also turned away in a 187-230 vote.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/190404-house-approves-keep-your-plan-obamacare-bill
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The chief difference between the plans is that Upton’s would allow insurers to sell the plans to anyone, even new customers. The White House contends that doing so would risk skewing the new insurance exchanges so that only the very sick and very costly would enroll.
But Republicans said that if the plans didn’t allow new customers, the old plans would be limited to only existing customers, a dwindling supply that would eventually close the plans, which is what the White House wants.
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“Of course they’re going to be eventually be actuarially unsound and collapse,” said Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
Democrats accused Republicans of being disingenuous in their concern for people with lost coverage.
“Are we supposed to believe this Republican majority is putting forth a good faith effort,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) “Once again, this Republican majority is trying to put health insurers back in the driver’s seat.”
Top House Democrats recommended to its members that they vote against the Upton bill, but they did not formally whip it, according to a Democratic leadership aide.
“This is politics, it’s not about policy,” Pelosi said on the House floor Friday morning. “It isn’t any attempt to improve the Affordable Care Act.”
House Democrats offered their own alternative, which takes elements from a proposal being pushed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on the other end of the Capitol. Like the senator’s plan, it requires insurers to keep the insurance policies open for only existing customers.
It also calls on insurers to let their customers know about new coverage options available under Obamacare, as well as consumer protection provisions that are not in existing plans. The plan would also give state insurance commissioners the authority to investigate “unjustified” rate increases.
But while Landrieu’s bill allows consumers to keep their existing plans indefinitely, the House Democratic alternative does it for one year – similar to the administrative fix.
It “therefore prevents any long-term, harmful impacts on the Affordable Care Act,” said a second Democratic leadership aide, who described the plan as “Landrieu-lite.”
This episode is the most recent sign of Democratic angst on Capitol Hill over Obamacare’s implementation. Obama could see his support further erode unless he begins to smooth the law’s rollout.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/democrats-obamacare-vote-99915_Page2.html
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