Only weeks after the high court ruled that much of the reform law was constitutional, the U.S. House of Representatives voted yesterday to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Voting largely along party lines, representatives voted 244-185 to abolish the measure; the House has done so more than 30 times already, MedPage Today reported.
The repeal had the support of Congressional medical providers, with members of the GOP Doctors Caucus voting to get rid of President Obama's healthcare law.
"As both a physician and a taxpayer, fully repealing Obamacare remains my top priority, and today the House took its first step towards this critically important goal," Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), said yesterday in a statement. "Healthcare costs in this country are too high, but this 2,000-page, $1 trillion law is not the solution. Patients should have more control of their insurance decisions, and reform should be driven on the state level," he said.
Rep. Bill Cassidy, M.D., (R-La.) shared similar sentiments, saying, "Our goal is to replace Obamacare with common-sense, free market, patient-centered reforms that give power to patients, not government bureaucrats."
But House Democrats expressed little concern, likening the vote to mere theatrics, according to CNN. "This repeal vote is a waste of time and tax dollars," Rep. G.K. Butterfield, (D-N.C.) said. "We've had this debate so many times that it really sounds like we just keep repeating the same thing," added Rep. Frank Pallone, (D-N.J.), noted the article.
Prior the vote, U.S. Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius already voiced her opposition to the action, saying that repealing the ACA would have "devastating" consequences for Medicare beneficiaries.
For more:
- check out the repeal bill and summary
- here's the MedPage Today article
- read the GOP Doctors Caucus statements
- read the CNN article