Washington: The US House of Representatives voted on Friday to take initial steps toward repealing Obamacare, following Thursday's Senate vote on the issue.

House representatives voted 227-198 for a resolution to determine the congressional budget for the 2017 fiscal year and the appropriate budgetary levels for the 2016-2018 fiscal years, allowing the Republicans to adjust budgets for programs under Obamacare, a legislation pushed through in 2010 to expand the coverage of health insurance by the Barack Obama administration, Xinhua reported.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the measure passed would launch a "thoughtful, step-by-step process" toward replacing Obamacare.

The Republican Party avoided voting directly to repeal Obamacare, which demands a super majority of 60 votes in Senate to pass, but chose to vote on a budget adjustment resolution, which only requires a simple majority. The Senate voted 51-49 on Thursday in favour of the resolution.

The Republican Party holds 52 seats in the 100-seat Senate and 241 seats in the 435-seat House of Representatives.

In both chambers of Congress, some Republicans were reluctant to vote along party lines as they believe their party should agree on a plan before moving to overturn the current legislation.

Obamacare, officially the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, has drawn criticism due to a rise in premiums. US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to replace it after taking office. </s> The United States House of Representatives on Friday passed a budget measure that begins the process to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act 2010, better known as Obamacare, Reuters reported. The House voted 227-198 to draft a legislation by January 27 that will revoke the healthcare law enacted by President Barack Obama nearly seven years ago.

The US Senate had passed the resolution by a 58-51 vote on Thursday. Republicans hold a majority in both Houses of the US Congress. No Democrat supported Friday’s move, whereas nine Republicans voted against it.

The healthcare law was passed to expand insurance coverage to some 20 million people. It directed insurers to not turn down those who were already ill and asked them to slash medical charges to the sick and elderly. In the last few years, the US Congress has voted more than 60 times to repeal or alter Obamacare.

The campaign to have Obamacare dismantled has been met with concerns as Republicans are not ready with replacement provisions yet. House Speaker Paul Ryan said, “We have to step in before things get worse. This is nothing short of a rescue mission.”

US President-elect Donald Trump on Friday praised the vote on Twitter, saying, “The ‘Unaffordable’ Care Act will soon be history!” He had vowed to have the Act repealed during his presidential campaign. </s> House Speaker Paul Ryan, accompanied by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, meets with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday to discuss efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act. (Photo: AP)

Washington: The US House of Representatives has joined the Senate in passing a critical measure that marks the first major step toward repealing outgoing President Barack Obama's landmark but controversial health care reforms.

The House's near party-line vote of 227 to 198 approved a budget blueprint which provides Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, with a framework for dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

But one week before Republican President-elect Donald Trump takes office, a sense of urgency has swept over Washington about what his party will put forward as a replacement for the law, with Democrats warning of disastrous consequences should Republicans act too hastily.

"This resolution essentially fires the starting pistol...for repealing Obamacare," said Representative Bill Johnson, an Ohio Republican.

"This is a critical first step to deliver relief to Americans struggling under this law," House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow members, describing as a "rescue mission" the latest effort to unwind Obamacare.

"This experiment has failed," and "we have to step in before things get worse."

The Senate passed the resolution Thursday. It received no Democratic support in either chamber, highlighting the intensely partisan fight that lies ahead.

The resolution provides Republicans with a powerful tool, called reconciliation, which allows repeal legislation to proceed through the 100-member Senate with a simple majority, protected from a Democratic filibuster that requires a 60-vote threshold to overcome.

Trump made repeal of the law a central plank of his insurgent campaign, and he sounded triumphant ahead of the vote.

"The 'Unaffordable' Care Act will soon be history!" he tweeted early on Friday.

Days earlier he said the Republicans ought to repeal and replace Obamacare quickly and "simultaneously."

During a Thursday town hall style event Ryan said he was on board, and that he envisioned action on a plan "within the first hundred days."

Unwinding Obamacare will be a monumental task. Republican leadership is moving carefully, stressing it does not want to "pull the rug out from anyone" who might lose coverage if there is no replacement plan on offer. </s> The US House of Representatives has taken the first step toward demolishing President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, known as Obamacare.Republicans passed a budget measure to introduce a bill - which Democrats cannot block - to roll back the law.But members of both parties in Congress are concerned about a lack of replacement for Obamacare.The political showdown raises a big question mark over medical coverage for more than 20 million Americans.The measure passed in the House nearly on a party-line vote, 227-198, delivering a blow to President Obama's legacy a week before he leaves office.It instructs four committees on Capitol Hill to draft repeal legislation by 27 January.The Senate passed the resolution by 51-48 on Thursday.Can Obamacare be repealed?US patients await Obamacare's fate"By taking the first step toward repealing Obamacare, we are closer to giving Americans relief from the problems this law has caused," House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement following the vote."This resolution gives us the tools we need for a step-by-step approach to fix these problems and put Americans back in control of their health care."Obamacare has provided healthcare subsidies and medical coverage for millions who are not covered through work.It has banned insurers from refusing coverage to people who are already ill, and curbed medical charges to the sick and elderly.But the law has been rocked by rising premiums, large fees and national insurers exiting the marketplaces.Egged on by Donald Trump, Republicans have vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act but conservatives have not yet agreed on a new plan. President-elect Donald J. Trump demanded on Tuesday that Congress immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act and pass another health law quickly. His remarks put Republicans in the nearly impossible position of having only weeks to replace a health law that took nearly two years to pass. “We have to get to business,” Mr. Trump told The New York Times in a telephone interview. “Obamacare has been a catastrophic event.” U.S. USA America "united States" Law Congress Republican Promise Obamacare Insurance "Health Insurance" poverty Poor Rich Wealth Lies Truth Plan "Health Insurance Plan" "American Dream" States Speech Meeting Experiment Lawyer health healthy hospital "travel insurance" doctor emergency savings salary family "health savings account" budget debt 2017 2018 future elite agenda news media entertainment benefit account sick sickness "private healthcare" surgery "elite nwo agenda" cancer charityMr. Trump appeared to be unclear both about the timing of already scheduled votes in Congress and about the difficulty of his demand — a repeal vote “probably some time next week” and a replacement “very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter.” As their first major act of the new Congress, Republicans rushed approval of a budget resolution this week that sets up a framework for repealing Obamacare, but what exactly to replace it with is still a puzzle Republicans are piecing together.House Speaker Paul Ryan, a college freshman who won't shut up about how you really should read more Ayn Rand books, is in a bit of a pickle right now. On the one hand, he and his fellow Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, setting the stage for the Affordable Care Act repeal that they've promised to the point of fetishization for the last six-plus years. On the other hand, after six-plus years, they still have no idea what the hell they're going to do instead! (Hope you got all your serious illness and major injuries out of the way in 2016, friend.) As Republicans try to repeal the Affordable Care Act, they should be reminded every day that 36,000— Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), in a tweet, Jan. 12, 2017With the fate of the Affordable Care Act hanging in the balance, the rhetorical warfare is only going to get worse. Earlier this week, we looked at an exaggerated GOP claim about Obamacare premiums. </s> The House is debating and expected to vote Thursday afternoon on the latest Republican measure to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

The bill includes last-minute amendments designed to draw votes from the most conservative House Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus as well as from their more moderate counterparts.

GOP leaders are hoping the third time is the charm for their measure. The original bill was pulled from the floor in March when it became apparent it would not pass. And last week, they considered but then decided not to risk another vote.

Republican members had their arms twisted by President Trump in phone calls, and attended a last minute pep rally Thursday morning, in which GOP House leaders reportedly told them it was "time to live or die by this day."

The measure, known as the American Health Care Act, is not expected to receive any support from Democrats, and so Republicans will have to come up with the necessary 216 votes to pass the bill and send it on to the Senate on their own.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calls the measure "a monstrosity," and said "Republicans have made Trumpcare even more dangerous and destructive than the last time they brought it to the floor."

House members will be voting on a bill without any knowledge of how many Americans will be affected, or the measure's price tag. That's because the Congressional Budget Office, the official scorekeeper, hasn't had a chance to analyze the amended bill. But the CBO estimated an earlier version of the measure would mean 24 million people could lose their insurance.

But we do know the bill would cut taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act, and slash funding for Medicaid, which was expanded under the ACA, by more than $800 billion. It would also allow states to seek waivers for many of the patient protections in Obamacare, including for those with pre-existing conditions.

The measure does provide $8 billion for states to set up high-risk pools to cover people with pre-existing conditions who were unable to find affordable coverage on the open market. That last-minute addition was key to winning support from some House Republicans were concerned about coverage for pre-existing conditions. But critics say it's woefully short of the amount of money actually necessary to guarantee affordable coverage.

An array of medical groups, led by the American Medical Association, oppose the measure. In a statement, AMA President Andrew Gurman said "None of the legislative tweaks under consideration changes the serious harm to patients and the health care delivery system if AHCA passes. Proposed changes to the bill tinker at the edges without remedying the fundamental failing of the bill --that millions of Americans will lose their health insurance as a direct result of this proposal."

The retirees' group AARP also opposes the GOP bill.

But passing the measure would be a step toward keeping one of President Trump's central campaign vows, and fulfilling Republicans' long stated goal of overturning Obamacare, as the Affordable Care Act is also known.

Whether the Senate will go along is another story. Few Senate Republicans have expressed any interest in the House plan, and it's expected to be significantly altered if it reaches that chamber. And polls have shown the GOP measure to be extremely unpopular with voters, potentially placing at risk the political careers of lawmakers who back it. </s> House of Representatives passed legislation for Republicans to proceed with ‘budget reconciliation’ to end key provisions of Obama’s signature healthcare law

Republicans ready to dismantle Obamacare amid replacement concerns Read more

Congress has set the stage for repeal of the Affordable Care Act, approving a preliminary measure that will allow Republicans to dismantle Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.

The legislation passed in the House of Representatives 227-198, with nine Republicans joining a united Democratic party in voting against. The narrowly Senate passed the same budget measure in the early hours of Thursday morning.

“This is a critical first step toward delivering relief to Americans who are struggling under this law,” said the House speaker, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, in a rare floor speech.

The move allows Republicans to use a procedure known as “budget reconciliation” to tear up key provisions of the law. Republican leaders have said they intend to “repeal” and “replace” Obamacare simultaneously to avoid disruptions in healthcare coverage, but they have yet to agree on a replacement plan.

In the days leading up to the voting, a growing number of Republicans began voicing concerns about repealing the law without first agreeing on an alternative. Democrats seized on these divisions and called on Republicans to reveal their plan before gutting the law, which covers an estimated 20 million Americans.



The Republicans who are not totally enthusiastic about repealing Obamacare Read more

“Republicans talk about they’re going to ‘repeal and replace’ – interesting alliteratively, but not realistic,” said House minority leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who led the passage of the law in 2009 and 2010. “For six years they have had a chance to propose an alternative. We see nothing.”

Republicans have been trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act since its passage in 2010.

With both chambers of Congress and the White House now in their grasp, they finally have the opportunity to do so. Before the House vote on Friday, Trump tweeted: “The “Unaffordable” Care Act will soon be history!” But they have yet to agree on a replacement plan.

On Thursday night Ryan said during a CNN town hall meeting that Congress would draft a replacement plan “definitely within these first 100 days” of Trump’s presidency.

During the forum Ryan was confronted by a cancer patient from Arizona who said the Affordable Care Act had saved his life and asked why Republicans would consider gutting the law without something else in place.

“We wouldn’t do that. We want to replace it with something better,” Ryan said. He claimed that the healthcare law was “collapsing” and said that Republicans needed to rescue Americans from soaring premiums and increasing deductibles.

Trump campaigned with zeal on the promise of repealing the law on “day one” and replacing it with “something terrific”. Beyond that, he has offered few details about his proposal.

At a news conference earlier this week, Trump said Republicans would deliver their healthcare plan to replace the law “very quickly”.

But to pass a replacement plan, Republicans will have to craft a proposal that unites their party, which is deeply divided on how to move forward, as well as win over some Democrats, since they would need a 60-vote super-majority in the Senate, where they only have 52 seats.

Democrats have said they are willing to work with Republicans to improve the law but have shown no desire to rescue them over its replacement.

Passing the measure is only a first step. Now lawmakers on various committees will begin drafting the legislation to replace the bill, a lengthy and exhaustive process that will take place across four committees.

“This is a sad day in the history of this country as Republicans begin the process of destroying healthcare in America,” said Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat of New York. “Repeal and replace is just a slogan, it’s not a solution.”

Also on Friday, Congress approved legislation that would allow retired marine general James Mattis to become defense secretary, granting him an exemption from the law that bars former service members who have been out of uniform for less than seven years from holding the top job at the Pentagon. A White House spokesman said Barack Obama would sign the measure if Congress approved it before he leaves office next week. </s> On the same day that the United States Senate cast a crucial procedural vote that could lead to abolishing the nation’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act, Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally that will live stream from the Trump stronghold of Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday. A live stream of the Trump speech, coming just a day after Trump delivered a controversial speech to the Boy Scouts of America, may be viewed by scrolling down on this page.

The Trump campaign rally is scheduled to get underway at 7 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 4 p.m. Pacific, at Covelli Centre in Youngstown, about four hours after the Senate cast a razor-close vote to proceed with debate on whether or not to repeal the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare;” the signature legislation passed during the term of President Barack Obama.

An actual vote on whether to repeal “Obamacare” will likely take place later this week. On Tuesday, the Senate split 50 votes to 50 on the move to proceed with debate on repeal. All 46 Senate Democrats plus the Senate’s two independents — Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine — voted against moving ahead with the repeal debate. Two Republicans also voted “no,” breaking ranks with their party and with Trump, who has demanded that Republicans show “loyalty” to him by voting in favor of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Watch a live stream of Trump’s Youngstown rally celebrating the Senate vote by clicking on the video below, courtesy of Right Side Broadcasting.

Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the two GOP members joining Democrats in the “no” vote. In cases of a tie vote in the Senate, the vice president is called upon to cast a tie-breaking vote, which Mike Pence did, giving the “no” vote a 51-50 majority win.

Youngstown is considered a bellwether of how white working class voters will tilt in presidential elections, and Trump visited the city — with its small population of only 60,000 residents — three times during his 2016 presidential campaign. Youngstown voters supported Trump in that election, and polls show that support for Trump in the Youngstown region remains strong.

Nonetheless, those same voters worry about how Trump’s effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act will affect their lives and their own health care. In interviews with the Associated Press, area residents expressed mixed opinions about Trump and his health care repeal push.

Jeni and Kevin Potter, whose 13-year-old daughter Erin is a three-time leukemia victim, told the AP that they might be forced to move to Canada — which has a national health insurance program — or the state of Massachusetts, which has its own state-level health care program similar to “Obamacare,” if the health care repeal strongly backed by Trump passes and is signed into law.

By contrast, 72-year-old Judy Martin told the AP that even though she has spent her entire life savings after working 51 years in a factory on medical expenses and now spends $400 of her $1,500 monthly Social Security benefit on medications and other health care costs, she believes that Trump will lower her medical expenses “and that he will take care of the little people.” </s> US Congress approves first step for repealing Obamacare

The US House of Representatives on Friday joined the Senate in passing a critical measure that marks the first major step toward repealing outgoing President Barack Obama’s landmark but controversial health care reforms.

The House’s party-line vote of 227 to 198 approved a budget blueprint which provides Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, with a framework for dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

But just a week before Republican President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office, a sense of urgency has swept over Washington about what his party will put forward as a replacement for the health care law, with Democrats warning of disastrous consequences should Republicans act too hastily.

“This resolution essentially fires the starting pistol… for repealing Obamacare,” said Representative Bill Johnson, an Ohio Republican, shortly before the vote.

“This is a critical first step to deliver relief to Americans struggling under this law,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow members, describing as a “rescue mission” the latest effort to unwind Obamacare.

“This experiment has failed,” and “we have to step in before things get worse.”

The Senate passed the budget resolution on Thursday. The measure received no Democratic support in either the Senate or the House, highlighting the intensely partisan fight that lies ahead.

The budget resolution provides Republicans with a powerful tool, called reconciliation, which allows repeal legislation to proceed through the 100-member Senate protected from filibuster blocking tactics and requiring just a simple majority for passage, instead of a higher 60-vote threshold.

Trump made repeal of the law, a key achievement of Obama’s Democratic administration, a central plank of his insurgent campaign.

This week he said the Republicans ought to repeal and replace Obamacare “simultaneously.”

Unwinding Obamacare will be a monumental task. Republican leadership is moving carefully, stressing it does not want to “pull the rug out from anyone” who might lose their coverage if there is no replacement plan on offer.

The White House, which claims Obamacare as a major success, says more than 20 million Americans have gained health insurance through the law.

Democrats warned that scrapping the Affordable Care Act, which forbids insurance companies from denying health care due to pre-existing conditions and allows children to stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, could result in millions of Americans losing coverage.

“Every American will be affected by this vote,” said number-two House Democrat Steny Hoyer, citing a faster hike in premiums than under current law, and a likely spike in drug costs.

Nine Republicans voted against the resolution in the House, including moderate Charlie Dent, who expressed “reservations” about repealing parts of Obamacare without a credible replacement at the ready.

“The repeal plan needs to be fully developed and better articulated,” he told CNN.

The post US Congress approves first step for repealing Obamacare appeared first on The Independent Uganda:.

This post was syndicated from The Independent Uganda:. Click here to read the full text on the original website.

Also, Like us on facebook </s> U.S. House Republicans on Friday won passage of a measure starting the process of dismantling Obamacare, despite concerns about not having a ready replacement and the potential financial cost of repealing repealing Democratic President Barack Obama's landmark health insurance law.

The House of Representatives voted 227-198 to instruct committees to draft legislation by a target date of Jan. 27 that would repeal the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. The Senate approved the same measure early Thursday.

No Democrats supported the initiative. Nine Republicans voted against the measure.

With this vote, Republicans began delivering on their promise to end Obamacare, which also was a campaign promise of Republican President-elect Donald Trump.

The program, which expanded health coverage to some 20 million people, has been plagued by increases in insurance premiums and deductibles and by some large insurers leaving the system.

The resolution passed by the House and Senate does not need presidential approval, since it is part of an internal congressional budget process. But once the Obamacare repeal legislation is drafted, both chambers will need to approve it, and a presidential signature will be required.

By that time, Trump will have been sworn in as president. He has urged Congress to act quickly to repeal and replace the Democratic program.

Obamacare was enacted nearly seven years ago - over Republican objections - in an effort to expand coverage and give new protections for people with pre-existing health conditions and other barriers that left them without insurance.



 In the past few years, the House has voted more than 60 times to repeal or alter Obamacare, but Republicans had no hope a repeal would become law as long as Obama was president and could veto their bills.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said Obamacare was collapsing and action was urgent. For people who have health insurance through the Obamacare system, he said, "The deductibles are so high it doesn’t feel like you’ve got insurance in the first place.



 "We have to step in before things get worse. This is nothing short of a rescue mission," Ryan said.



 Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi rebutted Republicans' claims that the law was a failure.

 “The rate of growth in healthcare costs in our country has been greatly diminished by the Affordable Care Act," she said. "In the more than 50 years that they have been measuring the rate of growth, it has never been slower than now."



 The choice before lawmakers, she said, is "affordable care versus chaos."



 Harvard University economist David Cutler warned that there could be trouble in U.S. insurance markets if lawmakers do repeal the law but a replacement is slow in coming.

"You could create a lot of havoc," he said, adding that some insurers "may get out of the market entirely."

Trump applauded Congress's efforts with a Friday morning tweet saying, "The 'Unaffordable' Care Act will soon be history!"

The president-elect, who takes office on Jan. 20, pressed lawmakers this week to repeal and replace it "essentially simultaneously."

Republican leaders would like to finish the repeal process within weeks, but some lawmakers think it could take far longer.

Some Republicans have expressed concern about starting a repeal before agreeing on how to replace provisions of the complicated and far-reaching law.
The United States House of Representatives votes to overturn President Donald Trump’s move on the Affordable Care Act.