Senate approves GOP bill targeting health care law

The Senate voted 52-47 Thursday to pass legislation that would repeal large swaths of the Affordable Care Act, a bill certain to be vetoed by President Barack Obama.

The bill, which is expected to be rubber stamped by the House in days, would be the first to reach Mr Obama’s desk demolishing his 2010 healthcare overhaul – one of his most significant domestic achievements.

USA Today reported that Senate Republicans have attempted over a dozen times to repeal Obamacare, but they have been unable to attain the 60 votes needed to overcome Democratic filibusters.

Some Republican senators did support what should be a bipartisan issue-Senators Mark Kirk (Illinois), Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania), Susan Collins (Maine), and John McCain (Arizona) all voted in favor of expanding background checks. Specifically, the legislation would revoke the federal government’s authority to run healthcare exchanges as well as ending the subsidies given to help people afford coverage.

The legislation would repeal sections of Obamacare that mandate individuals to purchase health insurance and employers with more than 50 employees to provide it and would eliminate all fines for those that fail to comply. “So once the parliamentarian determines that this legislation complies, it makes it hard to argue that a similar repeal bid doesn’t in January 2017 – when a new president might sign it into law”.

Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said Republicans are “digging their own grave” by focusing on campaign pledges to dismantle the ACA.

Although direct federal funding for abortion is heavily restricted by USA law, the organization receives about $500 million each year in public funds. Along with Senator Richard Burr and Congressman Fred Upton, Hatch has authored a replacement plan for Obamacare-the Patient CARE Act-that replaces the President’s failed policies with commonsense, patient-centered reform.

The bill is not expected to become law, as the Republicans do not have the necessary two-thirds support from the Senate to override the President’s veto. Federal funds can be used for abortions only in rare cases.

Planned Parenthood, a long-time target of anti-abortion forces, has come under fire after secretly recorded videos showed group officials discussing their provision of fetal tissue to scientists.

House majority leader Kevin McCarthy, asked if the chamber would simply take up the Senate bill, said: “Why wouldn’t we?”

Instead, she said that what the legislators did was give the people the “cold shoulder of indifference”. This would also prevent ObamaCare from expanding Medicaid for the poor, which has already been adopted by 30 states.

During Thursday’s debate, senators rejected two amendments offered by Democrats to increase gun controls, a day after the mass shooting that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.