–House Set To Pass Health Care Repeal, But Senate To Block Repeal Bill
–House Majority Leader Says GOP Will Look For Other Ways To Kill Law
–Budget Group Fears That Dismantling Health Care Would Worsen Deficit

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – The House will vote Wednesday afternoon to
repeal the new health care law.

The House Republican health law repeal bill, which is expected to
be approved in a near party line vote, is widely seen as mostly symbolic
since Democratic leaders in the Senate have vowed not to bring the bill
up.

President Obama would certainly veto the bill if it arrived on his
desk.

After the vote Wednesday to repeal the health care law, the House
Thursday will consider a resolution that directs the House’s health
committees to draft a bill to replace the current law.

The resolution does not specify when the replacement bill should be
ready or what it’s precise provisions should be, but it says it should
reduce insurance premiums, expand coverage, rewrite medical malpractice
laws and increase competition,

Voting to repeal the health care law was an integral part of the
House Republican campaign agenda in the 2010 mid-term elections, so GOP
leaders have wanted to hold the vote early in the year.

At a briefing Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the
new health care law is an “unsustainable and open-ended entitlement.”

Cantor said that if the House repeal bill falters in the Senate,
House Republicans will “do everything we can to delay and de-fund the
provisions so that we can get some discussions going on how we can
replace it, and come together on the agreement that we can’t accept the
status quo.”

Budget experts who have studied the new health law have said that
it will be difficult to dismantle it through the annual spending process
since many of the law’s central provisions are not subject to the
appropriations process.

The Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group, urged policymakers
to deal with the health care law carefully. It said efforts to repeal
unpopular provisions and retain popular ones could worsen the budget
deficit.

The House debate on repealing the health law has included
considerable discussion of the fiscal consequences of such a repeal.

Democrats have cited a report by the Congressional Budget Office
that repealing the law would worsen the deficit by $230 billion over a
decade.

House Speaker John Boehner has dismissed this report, but without
citing any contrary evidence.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan said Tuesday that the new
health care law “if left in place, will accelerate our country’s path
toward bankruptcy. This new law is a fiscal house of cards.”

President Obama has said that he is “willing and eager” to work
with lawmakers from both parties to improve the law. But he added: “We
can’t go backward. ”

** Market News International Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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