The House voted Tuesday to extend the nation’s Obamacare coverage expansions and to delay the individual mandate.
It’s a win for the GOP.
The House, which was expected to take up the bill late Wednesday, voted on the House bill with the help of a bipartisan group of lawmakers.
The GOP is the only party in the House that has passed a version of the House-passed bill.
In addition, GOP leaders have pledged to vote on a second bill Thursday that would repeal Obamacare and move to repeal taxes, including a provision that would raise taxes on those making more than $1 million a year.
Democrats say they are not happy with the bill, but they will vote for it if it comes up for a vote.
If the House passes the bill without any modifications, Democrats say, it will be the only version of Obamacare that will survive.
“The Republicans are now saying that we can only be sure of two things,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said during a press conference on Tuesday.
“That they’ll protect Obamacare, or that they will not pass this bill.”
House Republicans also voted for a measure that would roll back Obama’s signature health care law, though Democrats say that would be a “disaster” and “unfair” for millions of people.
Republicans said they would continue to work with the White House to improve the bill and are still reviewing the proposal.
But Democrats say it would only provide a temporary fix to the country’s health care problems and will not cover the people who are still uninsured.
They also argue that the legislation is a “fraudulent giveaway” to the insurance companies.
Democrats also accused Republicans of voting to protect “death panels” at the expense of people with pre-existing conditions.
“This bill is a fraud, it’s a lie, it is a cover-up,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said during Tuesday’s press conference.
“I think it will actually put us on the path to the ultimate disaster.
It will cost us more money than it is going to save, and we’re going to have to do it under a different set of circumstances.”
The bill passed easily, though some of the conservative lawmakers who supported it objected to the way it was crafted and whether it was adequate.
“There is no excuse for the bill that passed,” Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., said on Tuesday afternoon.
“We have been lied to for months and months and we’ve got a new president in the White-House who will tell us the bill is going nowhere.
The bill passed the House.
That’s all it needs to be.
If it passes the Senate, the Senate will take a different view of it and the House will take it to the floor of the Senate and then the Senate can pass a different version.”
The GOP has also been pushing to get rid of a requirement that insurers cover people with preexisting conditions.
The House passed the bill with only moderate amendments.
It passed the Senate on Wednesday with a vote of 233-194, with all Republicans supporting the measure.
Democrats are still working to get enough votes to pass the House version of their own bill, which would expand coverage for people with insurance.
As the House begins debate on a separate version of a bill to repeal Obamacare, Democrats are focusing on repealing the taxes, a major point of contention in the bill.