Obamacare Passes First Congressional Test Since Rollout

Republican Fred Upton of Michigan
Republican Fred Upton of Michigan

Notwithstanding the less than ideal beginning for the Affordable Care Act during the past few weeks, Democrats dropped their partisan squabbles and supported a Republican bill which allows health insurers to continue to sell plans through 2014 despite the fact that they were cancelled automatically under the specifics of Obamacare.

Thirty-nine Democrats from the House sided with the Republican proposal, allowing the bill to pass by a wide margin, 261-157. The bill was sponsored by Republican Representative Fred Upton of Michigan. Observers say it was an impressive show of disloyalty to Obama, but Democrats would have defected in even larger numbers if the administration hadn’t promised on Thursday to find an administrative solution to the problem of cancellations.

The White House is threatening to veto the bill stating that the bill “threatens the health security of hard working, middle class families.”

The bill is not expected to get much attention in the Democratic-led Senate. Several Senate Democrats have proposed their own legislation to deal with the problems and bugs in the ACA.

Dan Kazan

Dan Kazan has had years of experience writing for some of the largest newspapers and magazines in the USA. He was one of the first pioneers in bringing the news online and has focused most of his recent energies into making Left Justified the high quality online news and opinion site which it is.Dan can be reached at dankazan(at)leftjustified.com.

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