US Senators Vote Against Health Care and Reproductive Rights

The US Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would revoke aspects of Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act and strip Planned Parenthood of federal funding, MSNBC reports.

It also seeks to deny funding to women’s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood, which Republicans have been trying to punish for months over accusations that it illegally sold tissue from aborted fetuses. Democrats tried restoring those funds, but their effort was rejected on a near party-line vote of 54-46. Following the bill’s likely passage in the House of Representatives, it will move to the desk of President Obama.

McConnell said he hoped the House would do the same, leaving the choice with President Obama.

“What we are doing is listening to our constituents, who’ve told us that they’ve had one bad experience after another with Obamacare”, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said according to The Washington Times.

Both Democrats and Republicans support repeal of the Cadillac tax, explained Twila Brase, President of the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom. Democratic presidential candidate Sen.

Sens. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Marco Rubio, who initial didn’t support the measure since it didn’t fully repeal the law, were swayed into supporting the measure, which passed 52-47.

The bill would defang the requirement that most Americans have health insurance or pay a fine.

Also eliminated would be its expansion of Medicaid coverage to additional lower-income people and the government’s subsidies for many who buy policies on newly created insurance marketplaces.

The vote comes at a time when some plans sold via PPACA insurance exchanges have been struggling with weak enrollment, higher-than-expected medical costs, and increased premiums. The Federation described the Planned Parenthood funding was necessary especially after the events that took place last week. The group has said the videos were deceptively doctored and that it’s done nothing illegal.

Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization that provides reproductive health services to American citizens.

“Congress has acted, and a repeal bill is now headed to the president’s desk”. Obama’s law was enacted five years ago; Republicans haven’t produced a detailed proposal to replace it. “What are we here for if not to help people back home?”

Republicans argued that voters were on their side.

“Sending a bill to the president will certainly generate media headlines and make more Americans aware of the ongoing and widespread horrors that occur at Planned Parenthood”, Rose said. “However, it does not repeal a majority of the 2,700-page law”.