House votes to partially repeal ObamaCare

The House has passed a budget reconciliation bill that would repeal parts of ObamaCare and bring to a halt federal funding for Planned Parenthood for one year.

In a 240-189 vote on Friday, the House approved the bill which would repeal the Affordable Care Act's requirement for all Americans to obtain health insurance and for employers to offer it to their workers.

“We have a responsibility to use every tool we have to dismantle this flawed healthcare scheme, and the bill before us today will do just that,” Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.), who leads one of the committees charged with drafting the bill, said.

“This bill does not repeal all parts of ObamaCare, but it certainly repeals egregious parts of it,” he added.

"With this bill, we can finally confront the president with the reality confronting working families every day: higher costs and lower quality,” said Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who helped craft the reconciliation bill as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Under the Senate’s rules of reconciliation, the bill will go to the White House without being subject to a Democratic filibuster, which would force a veto.

The bill, however, faced opposition from 2016 presidential candidates Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

In addition, House Republicans, including Reps. Ken Buck (Col.), Bob Dold (Ill.), Richard Hanna (N.Y.), Walter Jones (N.C.), Mark Meadows (N.C.) and Matt Salmon (Ariz.) as well as Collin Peterson (Minn.), the only Democrat, opposed the bill.

Also, the bill’s fate is not clear in the Senate, as three Senate conservatives, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), have said they would oppose the bill, because party leaders have not lived up to their promise of fully repealing ObamaCare.

There are three other Republican senators who have also voiced concerns about defunding Planned Parenthood.

Meanwhile, several conservatives, as well as outside groups like Heritage Action for America and Freedom Works, have criticized the bill for not going far enough.

In June, the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 ruling, upheld a disputed portion of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare reform law.

The judges said the federal government can subsidize health insurance by giving tax credits to consumers nationwide.

Opponents of Obamacare had argued that it was unconstitutional for the federal government to subsidize insurance in states that rejected their own exchange for the federal system. 

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