text: 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. 
   
   ADVERTISEMENT 
   
   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. ||||| Four Republicans voted no on the bill. The 39 Democratic votes in favor represent the largest defection by far on a major or closely-watched piece of legislation this year, signaling the political difficulty that dozens of congressional Democrats face in reelection contests next year. 
   
   The proposal goes further than the administrative fix announced by President Obama Thursday, which would only allow insurers and state insurance commissioners to extend those policies through most of 2014. It faces an uphill climb in the Senate and Obama has said he would veto the bill. 
   
   But both efforts, as well as another crafted by Democrats in the Senate, are aimed at addressing the same issue: The political backlash over letters received by millions of Americans whose private health insurance policies are being canceled because of the health-care law. 
   
   Republicans have seized on the letters, as well as promises by President Obama that “if you like your health plan, you can keep it,” as evidence that the health-care law is flawed and that the president has not been honest about its downsides. 
   
   “We knew this was a promise [Obama] could not keep, and now it is a promise he has broken,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in floor remarks. 
   
   But the remarkable support from Democrats underscored the widespread political ramifications of Obama’s broken promise. 
   
   The bill’s co-sponsors included more than 80 Republicans and three swing-district Democrats facing tough reelection contests next year: Reps. John Barrow (Ga.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Patrick Murphy (Fla.). 
   
   Nervous about other potential defections, Democratic leaders dispatched several senior aides in the hours before the vote, and were seen and heard at one point talking about the vote in the hallways outside the House Chamber with Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Dan Maffiei (D-N.Y.), two freshmen who won tight races last year. Both ended up voted in favor of the legislation. 
   
   In another sign of the anger and frustration exhibited among Democrats this week, even Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), a passionate defender of the new law, suggested Friday that the Obama administration waited too long to address administrative fixes to the law and put too many Democrats at political risk. 
   
   “[The White House] knew very well that they had to give us something different to support because simply stone-walling about the president’s promise and why it wasn’t kept was not going to be an option,” he said. 
   
   But like others in his party, he concluded that Obama’s fix “has given us something else to get behind. It’s not perfect, but it’s something, and more than anything it’s an acknowledgment that a promise was made and we like to honor our promises.” 
   
   Most Democrats believe that the Upton bill fundamentally guts the health law. Among its provisions is a rule that insurance plans starting next year must cover a set of 10 so-called “essential” health benefits, such as maternity care and mental health services. The House bill would allow insurers to continue to sell plans that do not meet those basic standards. 
   
   In the past 24 hours, they rallied behind Obama’s plan, which only lets people renew current plans through October of next year and requires insurers to explain ways in which the old plans do not meet the law’s stricter requirements. 
   
   “This bill is not a bill to let people keep their health insurance plans. The president took care of that issue yesterday,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) said in floor remarks Friday. “What this bill is, is another vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act.” 
   
   A majority of Democrats also supported a House bill that mirrors a measure introduced by Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of several moderate Democrats facing difficult reelection contests next year. But the bill failed to advance to final passage. 
   
   Jeff Simon contributed to this report ||||| WASHINGTON — Defying a veto threat from President Obama, the House approved legislation on Friday that would allow insurance companies to renew individual health insurance policies and sell similar ones to new customers next year even if the coverage does not provide all the benefits and consumer protections required by the new health care law. 
   
   The vote was 261 to 157, with 39 Democrats bucking their party leadership and the White House to vote in favor of the bill. Hours after the vote, Mr. Obama and top aides met for over an hour with insurance executives after industry leaders complained Thursday that they had been blindsided by a White House reversal on canceled policies. The president described the meeting as a “brainstorming” session about how to ensure changes to the health care law go smoothly. 
   
   The insurance representatives, from more than a dozen companies, said they would work with the administration to protect the financial viability of the new marketplaces, but did not say how. Afterward, Karen Ignagni, the president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, said it was a “very productive” meeting, but would not go into detail. 
   
   The legislation approved by the House would go further than the fix announced on Thursday by Mr. Obama, who said he would temporarily waive some requirements of the law and allow insurers to renew “current policies for current enrollees” for a year. 
   
   Many of the Democrats who supported the bill are facing tough re-election fights back home, and expressed deep frustration with how the administration had handled the early carrying out of Mr. Obama’s signature health care law. Representative Nick J. Rahall II, Democrat of West Virginia, who voted for the legislation, said that the White House deserved an “F-minus” for its botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act. 
   
   “I’m disgusted about it,” Mr. Rahall said. “I think heads should roll downtown. Whoever was responsible or may have known that this was going to occur should no longer be employed.” 
   
   Representative Ron Barber, Democrat of Arizona, who also joined Republicans in voting for the bill, was equally scathing, calling the rollout “a disaster.” 
   
   “My constituents are pretty upset,” he said, “and so am I.” 
   
   Representative Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan and the chief sponsor of the House bill, said it would fulfill a promise that Mr. Obama had made to the American people and then broken. 
   
   “In the last three years,” Mr. Upton said, “the president personally promised that if people liked their current health care plan, they could keep it ‘no matter what.’ But cancellation notices are now arriving in millions of mailboxes across the country. It’s cancellation today, sticker shock tomorrow.” 
   
   Mr. Upton, the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, belittled Mr. Obama’s proposal, saying it was offered at the last minute, “as the administration’s allies in Congress panicked.” 
   
   Senior Democrats criticized the Upton legislation as a ploy that could unravel the entire health care law. 
   
   “Don’t pretend you care about the American people’s health care here,” said Representative Mike Doyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania. “You just want to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democrats are not going to let you do that.” 
   
   And Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, said insurers, in discussing the bill, had had “significant concerns on how it would work operationally.” 
   
   The outlook for the legislation is unclear in the Senate, where Democrats running for re-election in 2014 are looking for a way to help consumers facing the loss of insurance policies that do not meet requirements of the 2010 law. 
   
   Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, was one of the first Democrats to break with the White House and offer her own proposal, which would allow people to keep their current plans indefinitely. 
   
   However, after the president’s turnabout on Thursday, many Senate Democrats said they were waiting to see if additional legislation was necessary, and quick action in the Senate is not expected. 
   
   House Democrats on Friday used a procedural maneuver to offer a plan of their own called “Landrieu lite.” It was similar to the president’s proposal in its approach, and it gave Democrats some political cover in that it showed them taking action on the issue. 
   
   The Democratic proposal, which was rejected by Republicans, would have allowed people who like their current plans to retain them for a year. Under the Democratic proposal, unlike with Mr. Upton’s bill, insurers would not be allowed to sell plans that previously faced cancellation to new customers. ||||| Thirty-nine House Democrats on Friday broke ranks to support a Republican bill that would allow health insurers to continue selling plans canceled under Obamacare through 2014, the first test of support on Capitol Hill since the law’s disastrous rollout. 
   
   The House voted, 261-157, to pass the bill by Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.). It’s a significant show of disloyalty to the White House, but House Democrats had expected the defections to be far higher before the Obama administration said Thursday that it would pursue an administrative fix to the cancellation problem. 
   
   Text Size - 
   
   + 
   
   reset Top lines from Obama’s mea culpa 
   
   Obama’s White House vowed to veto the bill, saying it “threatens the health security of hard working, middle class families.” The bill is headed nowhere in the Democratic-led Senate, where a number of Senate Democrats have also proposed their own changes to the health care law. 
   
   (IN 90 SECONDS: Obamacare puts Democrats’ credibility on the line) 
   
   Four Republicans opposed the bill — Reps. Jim Bridenstine of Oklahoma, Paul Broun of Georgia, Ralph Hall of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Some conservatives had feared the bill could be viewed as making Obamacare “better.” 
   
   The Democratic defections largely came from members from the most moderate districts, including Reps. Bruce Braley of Iowa, Ron Kind of Wisconsin, Ami Bera of California, Nick Rahall of West Virginia. Also voting in support was Rep. Patrick Murphy of Florida, where the local Blue Cross plan got significant attention for sending out 300,000 cancellation notices. 
   
   But other Democrats voted for the bill, too, including Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and John Garamendi of California. 
   
   Democrats had feared mass defections earlier in the week, but Obama’s mea culpa speech on Thursday — along with persuasion from White House officials who came to the Hill to meet with House and Senate Democrats — stanched the blow somewhat. 
   
   (Also on POLITICO: The Obamacare fumble) 
   
   In a further attempt to limit the Democratic support for a Republican bill, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) held two meetings with her caucus in recent days with top administration officials, including the president’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough. 
   
   Still, the vote lured several politically vulnerable House Democrats over to the Republican side, as the health care law became a major focal point in their reelection campaigns next year. Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.), a top target of House Republicans, said he supported the Upton bill because this part of the health law didn’t “work.” 
   
   “It’s a huge bill, over 2,000 pages, there are going to be unintended consequences, there are going to be things that don’t work,” Barber said Friday of the health care law. “And I’m about fixing things that don’t work. I don’t want to see us throw the baby out with the bathwater, which is what some people recommend.” 
   
   (PHOTOS: Obamacare online glitches: 25 great quotes) 
   
   Before the administrative repair was announced, upwards of 100 House Democrats had threatened to support the Upton bill because they were worried about campaign ads against them on the president’s broken promise that consumers would be able to keep their insurance plans under Obamacare. 
   
   Upton, speaking on CNN Friday, said the thinks his bill — and the potential for Democratic support — spurred the White House’s administrative fix. 
   
   “Until they saw that we were going to have some 300 votes a couple days ago, they were just going to sit on their hands,” Upton told CNN on Friday. “That finally prompted the White House yesterday afternoon to announce this administrative change that they’re trying to do.” 
   
   “But until then, they were willing, ready and willing to let literally millions of folks who were going the lose their individual policies … go over the edge,” he added.
target: – 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.