The final push ahead of health care repeal vote

WASHINGTON – Lawmakers are making their final arguments ahead of Wednesday’s House vote to repeal the health care reform law.

Floor debate began Tuesday afternoon and will continue for five hours on Wednesday before the final vote is called. The repeal of the “job-destroying” health care law, as Republicans call it, is expected to pass the House. But the Senate, still led by Democrats, is unlikely to follow suit.

The Democratic minority, for their part, sought to “examine the effects of a repeal” by gathering testimony at a committee hearing from seven Americans who claimed to have benefitted from the law, which passed in March of last year.

“The best way to understand the legislation is by understanding how it will affect the families,” Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. “[In this hearing] you will see the real faces of reform.”

“The government is protecting the American people”

Edward Burke, a genial 52-year old severe hemophiliac, described his struggle with insurance caps, maxing the amount of insurance claims to $2 million per year, limiting the amount of medicine he can buy for his 6’4″ frame.

“For me, at 250 pounds — maybe 252 today — I infuse 3,000 units [of medicine] three times a week at $1 per unit…costs me $1 million annually,” Burke said in testimony at the hearing. “A healthy American with no chronic disease would have been able to get by for a long time without reaching this cap, but for someone like me, this can be devastating.”

The new health care law eliminates these caps.

Alexander Lataille embodied the struggle of many young Americans who are able to pay for health insurance only by staying on their parents’ plan until they turn 26, a provision of the law that is being implemented over the next few months.

“I believe that allowing young people to stay on their parent’s insurance gives us a new and real freedom to work toward a career goal without going uncovered,” said Lataille, a recent graduate from Lyndon State College in Vermont. “While my political views fall across a wide range on the political spectrum, this issue isn’t partisan to me.”

During questioning, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said that in repealing the health care, Republicans were not making Americans more free — and, in fact, they were doing the opposite.

“The government is protecting the American people from the insurance company,” Waxman said. “Who [Republicans] really want to make free is the insurance company.”

Democrats said that this was the only hearing aimed at telling the real stories of the health care debate.

“This is the only forum to examine the effects of a repeal,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the committee’s co-chair. “[Repealing] puts the insurance companies back in charge.”

Representatives drilled home the assertion that repealing the health care law would cause premiums to rise, decrease the number of new jobs and contribute billions to the national debt.

“We’re playing to the vanities of the extreme right wing,” Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said. “Every minute that we spend fruitlessly debating the repeal is one less minute we spend creating jobs and turning this economy around. This will hurt real people.”

“It’s unconstitutional”

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, held a pro-repeal press conference of his own on Tuesday, with fellow House Republicans.

Supported by some of his GOP House colleagues, King urged the crowd to repeal the health care law.

“Obamacare expands our dependency state,” King said. “It’s unconstitutional.”

The organization Repeal It Now has so far collected more than 500,000 petitions from American citizens who agree that the law is unconstitutional.

Repeal It Now Chairman Ken Hoagland said that he will spend the summer collecting millions of more petitions to present to the Senate “so they can remember the oath to constituents.”

Medill News Service reporter Alanna Autler contributed to this report.