As one of their first acts of the 112th Congress, House Republicans voted unanimously (along with three House Democrats) to repeal the Democrats’ health care law in its entirety. Although the Democrat-led Senate still refuses to take up legislation to fully repeal ObamaCare, House Republicans have not stopped looking for ways to defund it, resulting in more than $52 billion being taken out of ObamaCare:
|
ObamaCare Repeal/Cut Provisions |
Savings |
|
Reducing wasteful and fraudulent overpayments of taxpayer-funded subsidies (P.L. 112-9) |
$24.9 billion |
|
Striking the Democrats’ overly-generous eligibility criteria for taxpayer-subsidized health coverage to more closely align eligibility with other federally-means tested programs (P.L. 112-56) |
$13 billion |
|
Slashing funding for Harkin “Prevention” Fund (P.L. 112-96) |
$5 billion |
|
Rebase Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital allotments (P.L. 112-96) |
$4 billion |
|
Eliminating funding for the “Louisiana Purchase” (P.L. 112-96) |
$2.5 billion |
|
Cuts to ObamaCare Co-Ops (P.L. 112-10) |
$2.2 billion[1] |
|
ObamaCare’s so-called “Free-Choice” vouchers (P.L. 112-10) |
$400 million |
|
Rescinds funding for the Democrats’ rationing board in FY 2012 (P.L. 112-74) |
$10 million |
|
TOTAL |
$52 billion |
In addition to the provisions above, President Obama also signed into law the repeal of the onerous 1099 IRS reporting provision in his health care law. This will save American businesses countless hours and dollars in compliance costs, freeing up money to hire new workers or retain existing ones during tough economic times. The President also signed the Budget Control Act (P.L. 112-25) into law which will force the White House Office of Management and Budget to adopt billions of dollars in across-the-board cuts to ObamaCare.
The House has also voted to cut or repeal a number of ObamaCare provisions that the Senate refuses to consider, including:
- Reducing wasteful and fraudulent overpayments of taxpayer-funded subsidies even further (H.R. 3630);
- Additional cuts to the Harkin Fund (H.R. 1217 and H.R. 3630);
- Repealing the Democrats’ rationing board (H.R. 5);
- Eliminating a new entitlement program that Obama Administration officials agree is unsustainable (H.R. 1173);
- Ensuring that the long standing Hyde amendment is applied consistently, prohibiting the use of taxpayer money in the expanded Medicaid program and the new health insurance exchanges (H.R. 3 and H.R. 358);
- Allowing physician-owned hospitals to grow and expand to meet the needs of patients in their area (H.R. 3630);
- Repealing funding for health insurance exchanges (H.R. 1213);
- Repealing funding for SBHC construction (H.R. 1214); and
- Converting funding for graduate medical education in qualified teaching health centers to an authorization of appropriations (H.R. 1216).
While Republicans have made progress, there is still much more to be done. With recent analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirming that the cost of the law has nearly doubled to $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years, the case for repeal could not be stronger. Republicans will continue to press for full repeal of ObamaCare.