GOP Eyes Repeal of Health Reform Bill
Following the results of Tuesday's election - which President Barack Obama referred to as a "shellacking" for the Democratic party - many states and congressional districts across the country are "seeing red." While post-election days are usually filled with lofty speeches from incumbents touting their agendas to-be, many of the newly-elected GOP politicos seem to have a similar goal - repealing PPACA (or, as many call it, "Obamacare").
The day after the election, Speaker of the House-to be John Boehner stated that the Republican plan is to lay the groundwork for repealing PPACA. Reports from other sources, including the Dow Jones Newswire, also state that the House Republicans plan to vote early next year on legislation to repeal the law. However, even if the vote happens very quickly, whether the GOPers will actually be able to achieve their mission remains doubtful. Specifically, even if the GOP-dominated House votes to repeal the bill, a similar initiative will likely fail in the Senate and has no chance of avoiding a presidential veto. (The Senate membership currently is roughly equal Republicans and Democrats, with Democrats having a small advantage in numbers.) Additionally, some provisions of PPACA - such as allowing dependents to stay on their parents' coverage until the age of 26, and forcing insurers to cover children with pre-existing conditions, are quite popular and may prohibit a full-scale rollback.
Notwithstanding the projected political gridlock, another option for Republicans is to deny the funding needed to carry out PPACA's mandates. According to health care policy experts, the GOP will not be able to stop funding completely but they can keep it from growing by putting the Department of Health and Human Services "on a diet". However, since Congress does not have a current budget (rather a stop-gap measure to keep important agencies - such as HHS - funded at past levels), Congress is likely to pass another resolution to keep the government running at such levels through the spring. This means that any funding cuts won't kick in until Spring 2011, and it's likely they may even be delayed until October.
