Again, House votes to repeal reform law

For the third time since early 2011, the House of Representatives approved legislation to fully repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

In a vote of 229 to 195, the lower chamber approved the bill from Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), which has no chance of passing in the Senate.

"Today is a sham. It's a waste of time," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) told Modern Healthcare moments after the vote. "If we're to do something, we ought to be doing jobs. But this is a Circus here. This is Groundhog Day what happened here today."

At a news conference in the Capitol earlier Thursday, House Speaker John Boehner stood next to a tower of healthcare reform law regulations rising more than 7 feet from the ground and told reporters the reasons why the lower chamber would vote to overturn the law.

"Today the House is voting to repeal the president's healthcare law because it's increasing the cost of health insurance, reducing access to care and making it harder for small businesses hire new workers," Boehner said of the vote that is seen by many as a waste of time, given that it has no chance of passing in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Last week, a spokeswoman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said this latest full repeal vote will give new members of the 113th Congress an opportunity to weigh in on the controversial 2010 law. The 112th Congress passed full repeal measures in 2011 and 2012, and has voted on more than 30 pieces of legislation that would either overturn parts of it or strip it of the funds needed to implement it.

"While our goal is to repeal all of Obamacare, I will remind you that the president has signed into law seven different bills that repeal or defunded parts of that law," Boehner continued. "Is it enough? No. A full repeal is needed to keep this law from doing more damage to our economy and raising healthcare costs."

More than two years ago, the Ohio Republican and other members of the House GOP leadership had promised not only to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but to replace it with legislation they say is more effective.

"There was a discussion yesterday about that subject," Boehner said, answering a question about whether that is still part of the House GOP's plan. "And I expect our conference in the coming weeks to have a discussion about Obamacare and how we're going to deal with it, and what the replacement legislation would look like."

He later mentioned pieces of legislation that the House has supported that could later surface in replacement legislation, such as medical liability reform and a measure that would allow people to buy insurance across state lines. But he made it clear that the issue for the GOP will continue to be President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy legislation. And he didn't rule out the possibility of another repeal vote in the future.

"When we have further votes," Boehner said, "we'll let you know."

Jessica Zigmond