WASHINGTON, February 2nd (Sputnik) — Texas Senator Ted Cruz on Monday introduced a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, US President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law.
“This repeal bill is pro-growth, pro-jobs, and pro-liberty,” Cruz, who is a 2016 presidential candidate hopeful, said in a statement.
Cruz said that the Republican victory in November showed that US citizens want Congress to repeal Obamacare. A recent survey conducted by the non-profit health policy group Kaiser Family Foundation found that approximately one-third of US citizens favor repeal of Obamacare.
“We must send this bill to the President's desk. If he vetoes it, the GOP Congress should pass bill after bill to stop Obamacare,” Cruz said.
The US Congress created a new healthcare system in 2010, when President Obama’s Democratic Party controlled both houses of the legislature. Proponents of Obamacare, as the program is popularly known, say it helps poor people access health insurance, which is far more expensive in the US than in most industrialized nations.
Right-wing Republicans bitterly oppose Obamacare, saying it harms the economy and limits consumer choices. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has voted to repeal Obamacare dozens of times, but has been stopped by the Senate, which was controlled by the Democratic Party until last November’s elections.
The White House responded on Monday, saying the president would veto Cruz’s bill.
“The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. [House Resolution] 596. If the President were presented with H.R. 596, he would veto it,” a White House statement read.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the bill Tuesday in the 50th attempt to repeal the act.
“The last thing the Congress should do is refight old political battles and take a massive step backward by repealing basic protections that provide security for the middle class,” the White House said.
An attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act would endanger US health care, and would also increase the deficit and halt to job creation and economic growth, the White House added.
Meanwhile, last week’s Congressional Budget Office report estimated that 31 million Americans will still be uninsured 10 years from now.
One of the main reasons for that number is that many people still can’t afford to buy health insurance, even with financial help from the government, former insurance industry executive Wendell Potter wrote on Yahoo News.
