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. 
 
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 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. 
 
 The House vote also puts immediate pressure on Senate Democratic leaders to take action. Seven Senate Democrats have backed a bill that would require insurers to offer the cancelled plans. 
 
 During debate on the House bill, Upton accused Obama of knowing that his signature law would force millions of people out of plans they liked. He said Obama's promise that “if you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it” would go down in history as a line people forever associate with Obama. 
 
 “For last three years, the president repeated this promise in selling his signature law, and he did so with the knowledge it would not be met,” Upton said. 
 
 Upton and other Republicans also accused Obama of once again using administrative procedures to fix ObamaCare, when he should be working with Congress. 
 
 “For the last six weeks, the White House stood idly by, ignore the pleas of millions,” he said. “But as the administration's allies in Congress panicked, the White House went from attacking our thoughtful bill to making an end-run around Congress with a universal fix."” 
 
 Others noted that Obama continues to refuse legislative fixes to the law, even as he makes administrative fixes. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said Congress has no reason to trust that Obama will put the change into effect. 
 
 “Can we really trust the administration that wrote this disastrous missive in the first place, and so mishandled the implementation, do we trust them to now fix it?” he asked. “Do we trust them not to change their minds in two or three weeks time, when perhaps winds are blowing from a different direction?” 
 
 House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) agreed that Obama’s promise is now “a promise he has broken,” and said Obama's plan raises too many questions. 
 
 “The White House doesn't even know how they're going to implement the plan they announced yesterday,” Cantor said. “This proposal that we're talking about here… aims to help Americans keep their health insurance and give their neighbors a chance to buy the same plans, rather than forcing them onto a faulty website to buy new coverage they may not like or cannot afford.” 
 
 Obama's proposal was to allow state insurance commissioners to allow soon-to-be canceled health plans to be sold for another year, or possibly longer. Upton's bill would allow people to have permanent access to these plans. 
 
 That prompted Democrats to argue that Upton's bill would drastically undermine ObamaCare, since it would let people keep what they say are substandard plans, and let them avoid buying new plans under the ObamaCare exchanges. 
 
 “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. 
 
 “It's forcing people to choose healthcare they do not want, cannot afford, and isn't right for themselves and their families,” said House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). 
 
 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. ||||| WASHINGTON — Anxious congressional Democrats are threatening to abandon President Obama on a central element of his signature health care law, voicing increasing support for proposals that would allow Americans who are losing their health insurance coverage because of the Affordable Care Act to retain it. 
 
 The dissent comes as the Obama administration released enrollment figures on Wednesday that fell far short of expectations, and as House Republicans continued their sharp criticism of administration officials at congressional hearings examining the performance of the health care website and possible security risks of the online insurance exchanges. 
 
 In addition, a vote is scheduled Friday in the Republican-controlled House on a bill that would allow Americans to keep their existing health coverage through 2014 without penalties. The measure, drafted by Representative Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who is the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, is opposed by the White House, which argues that it would severely undermine the Affordable Care Act by allowing insurance companies to continue to sell health coverage that does not meet the higher standard of Mr. Obama’s health care law. 
 
 But a growing number of House Democrats, reflecting a strong political backlash to the rollout of the law, are warning the White House that they may support the measure if the administration does not provide a strong alternative argument. The approaching House vote is shaping up as an important test for both the health measure and the unity that Democratic leaders have so far been able to maintain around it despite a fierce Republican attack. 
 
 In a closed-door meeting Wednesday of House Democrats and White House officials, tensions flared as several lawmakers upbraided the administration, saying that the president had put Democrats in a tough political position by wrongly promising consumers that they could keep their existing health care plans. In fact, hundreds of thousands of Americans have received cancellation notices from their insurers because their health care coverage does not meet the minimum standards dictated by the new law. 
 
 “I’m frustrated in how it rolled out, and I let them know in no uncertain terms,” said Representative Mike Doyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania. “The point I was making in caucus to the administration is don’t give us this techno-babble that you’re going to do some administrative fix down the road. There’s a bill being put on the floor on Friday.” 
 
 The overall message of the meeting, said several attendees, was that the White House and the House Democratic leadership have until Friday to come up with a satisfactory alternative, or House Democrats may be forced to support Mr. Upton’s bill, which already has two Democratic co-sponsors: Representatives John Barrow of Georgia and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina, who represent more conservative districts. 
 
 “I think the Upton bill is terrible, but we need something else to vote for in order to keep our word to the American people,” Mr. Doyle added. “We told people in those plans that they were grandfathered in, and if they wanted to stay in them, they could, and we need to honor that.” 
 
 A similar proposal, which would allow people to keep their current health insurance permanently, is also drawing support in the Senate under an effort led by Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana. Ms. Landrieu said she remained committed to her bill, despite White House expressions of reluctance to embrace a legislative fix. Still, the White House spokesman, Jay Carney, said Wednesday that the Landrieu proposal “shares a similar goal to what the president has asked his team to explore.” 
 
 “We are happy to work with her and any member of Congress who has ideas on how to make the Affordable Care Act better,” he said. 
 
 Ms. Landrieu drew a distinction between her plan — which she said would maintain the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act — and those offered by Republicans that would dismantle the law, like the one introduced by Mr. Upton. ||||| WASHINGTON — President Obama, trying to quell a growing furor over the rollout of his health care law, bowed to bipartisan pressure on Thursday and announced a policy reversal that would allow insurance companies to temporarily keep people on health plans that were to be canceled under the new law because they did not meet minimum standards. 
 
 The decision to allow the policies to remain in effect for a year without penalties represented the Obama administration’s hurriedly developed effort to address one of the major complaints about the beleaguered health care law. It seemed for the moment to calm rising anger and fear of a political backlash among congressional Democrats who had been threatening to support various legislative solutions opposed by the White House because of their potential to undermine the law. 
 
 Senate Democratic leaders said they did not see the need for an immediate legislative fix — a victory for White House officials worried that momentum was building toward consideration of a measure to force the change. 
 
 The Republican-controlled House is still set to vote Friday on a bill by Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, that would allow Americans to keep their existing health coverage through 2014 without penalties — as well as allow new people to continue to buy the plans, something the White House said would gut the Affordable Care Act. 
 
 The president’s announcement on Thursday seemed to limit Democratic defections, with only two dozen or so House Democrats now expected to support Mr. Upton’s bill. Without the presidential action, officials said, scores of Democrats might have joined Republicans in approving the Upton measure. 
 
 It remained unclear, however, just how much impact the fix delivered by an apologetic Mr. Obama would actually have. Though his proposal grants discretion to insurers to allow people to stay on their existing plans, there is no guarantee that insurers will do so, or that the states will allow such renewals. 
 
 Also unclear are what prices will be charged by insurers for existing policies that are continued in force through 2014. Insurers generally did not have rates approved for the renewal of such coverage because the policies were supposed to be terminated at the end of this year. 
 
 Some state insurance commissioners caught off-guard by the announcement said they did not intend to allow insurers to reinstate the policies. And insurance companies denounced the president’s action. 
 
 “Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers,” said Karen M. Ignagni, the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group. 
 
 “Premiums have already been set for next year based on an assumption about when consumers will be transitioning to the new marketplace,” she said. “If now fewer younger and healthier people choose to purchase coverage in the exchange, premiums will increase, and there will be fewer choices for consumers.” 
 
 The National Association of Insurance Commissioners, representing state officials, and the American Academy of Actuaries, a nonpartisan professional group, said the move could threaten the viability of insurance markets operating under rules that provide consumers with new protections starting in 2014. 
 
 Republicans portrayed the policy switch as an effort to shift blame to insurance companies. Speaker John A. Boehner dismissed the president’s act and said the White House could not be trusted on the issue. 
 
 “Promise after promise from this administration has turned out to be not true,” Mr. Boehner said. “So when it comes to this health care law, the White House doesn’t have much credibility. Now, let’s be clear. The only way to fully protect the American people is to scrap this law once and for all. There is no way to fix this.” ||||| House Democrats on Wednesday expressed increasing frustration at the Obama administration’s inability to improve the rollout of ObamaCare. 
 
 Democrats said they’re worried about "being dragged into this non-stop cycle" of bad news about the ObamaCare rollout, rather than celebrating the successes of the law they helped to pass, a Democratic aide said. 
 
 "They're voicing those frustrations with the administration," the aide said following a Democratic Caucus meeting where administration officials got an earful from exasperated lawmakers. 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT With the House vote just two days away, many Democrats are urging the White House to come up with an administrative alternative to legislation sponsored by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) that would allow insurance companies to offer their old insurance plans. 
 
 The GOP bill is a response to the nearly 5 million people who have seen their health plans canceled under ObamaCare. 
 
 Two centrist Democrats — Reps. John Barrow (Ga.) and Mike McIntyre (N.C.) — already have endorsed the Upton measure, but that number could rise if the bill comes up for a vote without a Democratic alternative providing some political cover. 
 
 A second Democratic aide warned that if the administration doesn't provide such a substitute by Friday, many members will "go crazy.” 
 
 White House press secretary Jay Carney on Wednesday said President Obama would announce “sooner rather than later” his proposed fix for those who have lost their health insurance because of ObamaCare. 
 
 “You can expect a decision from him and announcement from him sooner rather than later on options that we can take to address the problem that we've been discussing here with regards to those individuals who have had their individual insurance plans canceled because of the transition to the Affordable Care Act marketplaces,” Carney said. 
 
 Separately, the White House spokesman said Obama had personally been consulting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill about tweaks to his signature healthcare bill. 
 
 “The president does want to and is discussing with lawmakers the way we can make improvements to the program,” Carney said. 
 
 But Carney said that the White House was still wary of Upton’s bill. 
 
 House Democrats were briefed at their Wednesday caucus meeting by David Simas, the White House deputy senior adviser for communications and strategy, and Mike Hash, director of the Office of Health Reform at the Department of Health and Human Services. 
 
 Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said the officials provided no hints as to what tweaks the administration is considering, or when they might surface. But the disgruntled message from Democrats, he added, was perfectly clear. 
 
 “They heard our caucus,” Pascrell said. “I wouldn't say [it was] heated, but very specific. In this business, you keep your word or get out.” 
 
 Meeting the press after Wednesday's meeting, Democratic leaders downplayed the friction between House Democrats and the administration on the ObamaCare rollout. But they also acknowledged the unrest among many in the caucus. 
 
 “We're Democrats and we're very passionate, especially when it comes to the issue of the Affordable Care Act,” Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) said. “There have been some frustrations about the rollout, but the reality is this is an enormous, an enormous, undertaking.” 
 
 Pascrell said the burden falls squarely on the shoulders of Democrats to fix the law they championed. 
 
 “We've worked too hard to get this passed, and in good conscience, we have to deliver to the American people,” he said. “I don't want to hear about the Republicans exploiting this. They're going to exploit every chance that they have. They didn't cause this particular problem. And so what I'm saying is that we'd better come up with an option or an alternative to Mr. Upton.” 
 
 The Upton bill remained a topic of discussion after the meeting. Riding in a crowded elevator up to the House floor, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) asked Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.), a fiscally conservative Blue Dog, whether he would be voting for the bill. "I don't think so," Cooper replied. Moran then said, "I'm really torn up over this." He later told reporters that he would not be voting for the bill but wouldn't whip his colleagues against it. 
 
 Upton's legislation would allow the health insurance industry to continue offering bare-bones plans that existed before the beginning of this calendar year, even if they do not satisfy the minimum coverage requirements mandated by the Affordable Care Act. 
 
 Supporters of ObamaCare have expressed concern that the plan would undermine healthcare reform because the younger, healthier consumers who are needed to keep premiums down would opt for cheaper plans rather than the fuller coverage offered on the ObamaCare exchanges. In turn, premiums would shoot up for sicker and older enrollees. 
 
 “We don't believe that proposed legislation that actually causes more problems than it fixes are the right way to go,” Carney said. 
 
 A similar bill championed by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) in the Senate has garnered support from other influential Democrats. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Tuesday said she would sign on to Landrieu's effort. 
 
 The House would be open to considering a Democratic-sponsored bill to fix ObamaCare, if the Senate can pass it, a key GOP lawmaker said on Wednesday. 
 
 Upton on Wednesday suggested the House could vote on Landrieu's bill, which would require insurance companies to offer the old plans. 
 
 "We wanted to pass a bill with bipartisan support — that's what the goal is, if [the Senate] can pass something, more power to them — let's fix the problem," Upton told a gaggle of reporters. 
 
 Yet some conservatives have expressed opposition to the Landrieu bill, which would impose requirements on private companies. 
 
 "Government can't be mandating that businesses must sell a certain product," Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said. "This is not the Soviet Union." 
 
 —Russell Berman and Molly K. Hooper contributed to this story. 
 
 This story was updated at 3:02 p.m.
– More bad news for President Obama on ObamaCare today: The House passed legislation widely seen as undermining the health-care law, and 39 Democrats joined Republicans in favor, reports the Washington Post. The bill from Michigan Republican Fed Upton would guarantee that people whose policies got canceled under ObamaCare would be able to keep them. President Obama addressed the problem yesterday with an administrative fix, but Upton's bill goes further. While the president's fix says the plans can remain available for only another year, Upton's measure seeks to keep them around permanently, reports the Hill. (The White House has promised a veto if the bill gets through the Senate, where its prospects are uncertain.) Some dueling quotes, as noted by the New York Times: Upton: "Cancellation notices are now arriving in millions of mailboxes across the country. It’s cancellation today, sticker shock tomorrow.” Democrat Mike Doyle: “Don’t pretend you care about the American people’s health care here. You just want to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democrats are not going to let you do that.” Most of the Democrats who voted with Republicans face tough re-election fights in which ObamaCare is expected to play a big role. Politico sees their votes as a "major show of disloyalty," though it says the number of defections surely would have been higher had Obama not acted yesterday.