Silke Jasso
President Donald Trump promised to repeal and replace Obamacare throughout campaign season, and now he has leapt over the first hurdle in doing so, as the American Health Care Act (AHCA) passed through the House of Representatives on Thursday 217-213.
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All Democrats and 20 Republicans voted “nay.”
WATCH LIVE: Pres. Trump, House GOP leaders hold news conference in White House Rose Garden after #AHCA passage https://t.co/Okz2bwUl4f pic.twitter.com/s2XkY2EKAv
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 4, 2017
Trump greeted with applause at the White House after the House passes Obamacare repeal bill https://t.co/UYpqI3w42L https://t.co/RDxz94H0St
— CNN (@CNN) May 4, 2017
From here, the bill will go to the Senate. It’s a stark contrast to the last time Republicans attempted to get a health care vote to happen. Just six weeks ago, on March 24, Republicans tried to put the bill up for a vote and at the last minute pulled it because it didn’t have the support of its own party.
Eight years of opposition to Obamacare and pledges to repeal and replace it had fallen flat.
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Today, President Trump pledged from the Rose Garden at the White House to push the bill through the Senate.
“Make no mistake, this is a repeal and a replace of Obamacare,” Trump said, promising lower premiums and deductibles. “There is an unbelievable amount of talent standing behind me.”
The president waved to Paul Ryan and a gaggle of fellow Republicans basking in the moment.
Trump particularly thanked Ryan for his efforts in bringing a lot of groups together over the past four days.
“This has really brought Republican Party together,” Trump said.
He also marveled, at one point, that he was president.
https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/860215760320417792
The president pivoted at the end to his tax plan, calling it the biggest tax cut, not since Ronald Reagan but since ever.
Speaker Paul Ryan said to a chuckling audience that he knew the Senate was eager to get to work.
“Many of us are here because we pledged to cast this very vote,” Ryan said earlier in the day. He added, “Are we going to keep the promises that we made, or are we going to falter?”
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 Obama’s law which has clamped down on people who don’t buy coverage, and it would erase tax increases in the Affordable Care Act 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.
It would retain Obama’s requirement that family policies cover grown children until age 26.
But states could get federal waivers freeing insurers from other Obama coverage requirements. With waivers, insurers could charge people with pre-existing illnesses far higher rates than healthy customers, boost prices for older consumers to whatever they wish and ignore the mandate that they cover specified services like pregnancy care.
The bill would block federal payments to Planned Parenthood for a year, considered a triumph by many anti-abortion Republicans.
Earlier this week, moderates objected that constituents with pre-existing conditions could effectively be denied coverage by insurers charging them exorbitant premiums.
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But GOP leaders seemed to win over a raft of wavering lawmakers after adding $8 billion over five years for state high-risk pools, aimed at helping seriously ill people pay expensive premiums. That was on top of $130 billion already in the bill for states to help customers, though critics said those amounts were insufficient.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
