Two upcoming votes in House part of GOP continuing assault on health law

Jul 15 2013

Bloomberg: House To Vote To Repeal Individual Health-Care Mandate
House Speaker John Boehner said the chamber will vote next week to delay the 2010 health-care law's requirement that most Americans carry health insurance. At his weekly news conference today, the speaker said it's not fair for President Barack Obama's administration to keep that provision in effect while postponing enforcement of the requirement that businesses provide their workers with insurance (Hunter, 7/11).

Kaiser Health News: Republicans Ready To Try Obamacare Repeal – Again And Again
The votes would be the 38th and 39th time House Republicans have voted to repeal all or part of the law. Congressional Republicans saw a new opportunity to kill or weaken President Obama's signature policy achievement last week. That was when administration officials announced that the law's requirement that employers with 50 or more workers offer insurance in 2014 or pay a fine had been postponed for one year ... Administration officials and proponents of the law say the delay will cause few people to go without coverage because most businesses with 50 or more workers already provide health coverage to employees (Carey, 7/11).

National Journal: Beohner Capitalizes On White House Obamacare Delay
Boehner's idea now is to run one bill that would enshrine into law the employer-mandate delay, forcing Democrats to publicly acknowledge the implementation problem or side against the White House in its delay decision. The second bill would go further than the White House did by also delaying the individual mandate for a year (Frates, 7/11).

Politico: Marco Rubio: Defund Obamacare Or No Spending Deal
Sen. Marco Rubio pledged Thursday that he won't vote for a short-term spending bill to keep the government open unless it defunds the Affordable Care Act. "I will not vote for a continuing resolution unless it defunds Obamacare," the Florida Republican said at a breakfast hosted by The Weekly Standard and Concerned Veterans for America. He called on his fellow senators to do the same. ... The spending showdown is likely to hit around the time that enrollment in the Obamacare health insurance exchanges start in October (Cunningham, 7/11).

National Journal: Obamacare Delay? What Obamacare Delay?
The employer mandate was one of many ancillary provisions-;not critical to Obamacare's central mission-;that the administration has jettisoned in its race to build the exchanges in time. But signing people up for new insurance plans and giving them tax credits to do so is the main idea. It will take a major calamity for the administration to delay this crucial piece of the law (Sanger-Katz, 7/12).

CQ HealthBeat: A Health Law Change Dozens Of House Democrats Back: Slowing Down DSH Cuts
Hospitals are stepping up their pleas to lawmakers to delay cuts in a type of payment that framers of the health law thought would become less necessary as more uninsured Americans get health coverage. At issue are so-called "DSH payments." The term refers to Medicare and Medicaid payments to facilities that policy wonks call "Disproportionate Share Hospitals" (Reichard, 7/12).

Politico: FreedomWorks Says Burn Obamacare Cards
FreedomWorks launched a campaign Thursday to rebrand the health care law -; and the requirement that most Americans obtain insurance or face a penalty -; as a military-style draft. And it's asking resisters to burn their "Obamacare draft cards." Never mind the fact that there are no such thing as Obamacare cards (Cheney, 7/11).