Our Health Policy Matters

The House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act for the 40 th time last week.  It did this before balancing the budget, passing a jobs bill, reforming election laws, or anything else that might actually improve its standing in the eyes of the general public. So what began for some members of Congress as principled opposition to federal “overreach” has turned into a political punch line: “How many more votes will it take for the House of Representatives to repeal Obamacare?  It doesn’t matter, because the House doesn’t count anyway.” The very first column I wrote after the mid-term election in 2010 was entitled “ Six Reasons Why Health Reform Won’t be Repealed .”  In it, I argued that there were at least five substantive reasons why the Affordable Care Act would not be repealed in spite of the Republican House takeover.  These included the popularity of the expanded Medicare benefits, the benefits to early retirees, the benefits to...

The House of Representatives voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act for the 40 th time last week.  It did this before balancing the budget, passing a jobs bill, reforming election laws, or anything else that might actually improve its standing in the eyes of the general public. So what began for some members of Congress as principled opposition to federal “overreach” has turned into a political punch line: “How many more votes will it take for the House of Representatives to repeal Obamacare?  It doesn’t matter, because the House doesn’t count anyway.” The very first column I wrote after the mid-term election in 2010 was entitled “ Six Reasons Why Health Reform Won’t be Repealed .”  In it, I argued that there were at least five substantive reasons why the Affordable Care Act would not be repealed in spite of the Republican House takeover.  These included the popularity of the expanded Medicare benefits, the benefits to early retirees, the benefits to...