Reacting to the White House's decision to delay a key provision of the health care reform law that would fine large employers who failed to offer health insurance to their employees House Republicans have demanded that the provision requiring individuals to purchase health insurance also be delayed, reports The New York Times.
After attempting to repeal the law commonly referred to as Obamacare at least 30 times since it was passed House Republicans smell blood and believe that they have traction that will enable them to eventually take the law apart piece by piece.
Starting this month it is thought that House Republicans will attempt to codify the one-year delay on the employer mandate that the White House has recommended, a vote that they assume Democrats will go along with in order to support the Obama administration. Then Republicans will bring up a vote to delay the individual mandate forcing House Democrats into a corner; supporting one delay for business and not one for individuals will look bad to voters, leaving the Obama administration out to dry by voting for a delay would also be problematic, according to The New York Times.
"Is it fair for the president of the United States to give American businesses an exemption from his health care law's mandates without giving the same exemption to the rest of America," Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "Hell no, it's not fair. We should be thinking about giving the rest of America the same exemption that Obama last week gave businesses."
House majority leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., echoed Boehner's sentiments.
"I never thought I'd see the day when the White House, this president, came done on the side of big business, but left the American people out in the cold as far as this health care mandate is concerned," Cantor said.
A bill is being brought up in the House by Rep. Jim Price, R-Ga., that would ban the Internal Revenue Service from acting to enforce the health care reform law, essentially killing the law, according to Politico.
A group of Republicans sent a letter to President Obama that basically called for the repeal of the law.
"We agree with you that many of the provisions in the law cannot be implemented within the current time frame, but we strongly disagree with you that time will ever remedy these predictable consequences of the law," the letter said.
While Democrats must concede that the delay of the employer mandate is a step backward toward implementation of health care reform they appear to have no intention of allowing the law to be pushed back any further. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., the senior Democrat on the Ways and Means subcommittee on health told The New York Times that waiting one more year for implementation of the historic law is still acceptable.
"If you take away the individual mandate, that would dismantle a core concept of universal coverage," McDermott said. "We have been waiting for national health care coverage since Teddy Roosevelt, for more than 100 years. One more year is not the end of the earth."
