Republicans push health bill through
Late revision nails down votes needed to pass law Democrats say they’ll regret
WASHINGTON— Relieved Republicans muscled their health care bill through the House Thursday, taking their biggest step toward dismantling the Obama health care overhaul since Donald Trump took office. They won passage only after overcoming their own divisions that nearly sank the measure six weeks ago.
Beaten but unbowed, Democrats insisted Republicans will pay at election time for repealing major provisions of the law. They sang the pop song “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” to the GOP lawmakers as the end of the voting neared. The Republicans seemed unworried, many of them busing to the White House for a victory appearance with the president.
The measure skirted through the House by a thin 217-213 vote, as all voting Democrats and 20 mostly moderate Republican holdouts voted no. A defeat would have been politically devastating for U.S. President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan.
Passage was a product of heavy lobbying by the White House and Republican leaders, plus late revisions that nailed down the final support needed. Leaders rallied rank-andfile lawmakers at a closed-door meeting early Thursday by playing “Eye of the Tiger.”
“Many of us are here because we pledged to cast this very vote,” Ryan said. He added, “Are we going to keep the promises that we made, or are we going to falter?”
The bill now faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where even GOP lawmakers say major changes are likely. In a statement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the House vote “an important step” to repealing Obama’s law and said, “Congress will continue to act on legislation to provide more choices and freedom in health-care decisions.”
Republicans have promised to erase former president Barack Obama’s law since its 2010 enactment, but this year — with Trump in the White House and in full control of Congress — is their first real chance to deliver. But polls have shown a public distaste for the repeal effort and a gain in popularity for Obama’s statute, and Democrats — solidly opposing the bill — said Republicans would pay a price in next year’s congressional elections.
“You vote for this bill, you’ll have walked the plank from moderate to radical,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, warning Republicans that voters would punish them. “You will glow in the dark on this one.”
The bitter health-care battle dominated the Capitol even as Congress sent Trump a bipartisan $1-trillion measure financing federal agencies through September. The Senate approved that bill 79-18 a day after the House passed it easily, heading off a weekend federal shutdown that both parties wanted to avoid.
Ryan cancelled a March vote on the health-care bill because disgruntled conservatives said the measure was too meek, while GOP moderates said its cuts were too deep.
He abandoned a second attempt for a vote last week. As late as Tuesday, The Associated Press counted 21 GOP opponents — one short of the number that would kill the measure if all Democrats voted no.
Over the past few weeks, the measure was revamped to attract most hard-line conservatives and some GOP centrists. In a final tweak, leaders added a modest pool of money to help people with pre-existing medical conditions afford coverage, a concern that caused a near-fatal rebellion among Republicans in recent days.
The bill would eliminate tax penalties in Obama’s law, which has clamped down on people who don’t buy coverage, and it erases tax increases on higher-earning people and the health industry. It cuts the Medicaid program for low-income people and lets states impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients. It transforms Obama’s subsidies for millions buying insurance — largely based on people’s incomes and premium costs — into tax credits that rise with consumers’ ages.
The bill would block federal payments to Planned Parenthood for a year, considered a triumph by many anti-abortion Republicans.
Democrats defended Obama’s law for expanding coverage to 20 million Americans and forcing insurers to offer more generous benefits. They said the GOP measure would toss millions off coverage while delivering tax cuts to the wealthy. With files from the New York Times