As the GOP-controlled U.S. House of Representatives prepared to vote on repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the White House said a repeal bill would be vetoed.
As with previous votes, action by the House — scheduled for Thursday — to repeal President Barack Obama‘s signature healthcare policy likely will go nowhere because the Democratic Senate won’t consider it. In a statement Monday, the White House Office of Management and Budget said Obama would veto a repeal bill “because it would cost millions of hard-working middle class families the security of affordable health coverage and care they deserve. It would increase the deficit and detract from the work the Congress needs to do to focus on the economy and create jobs.”
In a statement, the OMB said repealing the Affordable Care Act would mean “marketplaces where Americans could compare private insurance plans and get tax credits to purchase them would not open.”
“Tax credits for small business owners who cover their employees would be eliminated,” the statement said. “States would lose substantial Federal assistance under Medicaid to provide coverage for the neediest Americans.”
Repeal would mean insured Americans “would lose the benefits and protections they receive under the healthcare law,” the OMB said.
It would take a GOP trifecta in the November elections — winning the White House and control of the Senate and retaining its majority in the House — to overturn the Affordable Care Act or at least defund portions of it, CBS News reported Monday.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last month the individual mandate, the heart of the healthcare law, is constitutional because it is a tax.