Attacking Obamacare

For Opponents of Health Care Law, No Easy Road to Repeal

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER, NYT

WASHINGTON — Minutes after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold most of the health care law, Congressional Republicans vowed to use every ounce of their legislative muscle to repeal it on their own.

The court’s ruling that Congress can use its taxing power to assess a penalty fee on Americans who ignore the individual insurance mandate certainly opens a gateway for anti-tax Republicans to attack the law. Should they win the White House and gain even a narrow majority in the Senate, Republicans would be able to use the same procedural approach Democrats took to get the health care law over the finish line two years ago to undo the taxes and federal subsidies that are at the core of the law.

But attacking the law by stripping away its layers of taxes, fees and subsidies is not the same as dismantling it. Undoing the major benefits and policies of the law — which include medical coverage for children up to age 26, protections for people with pre-existing conditions and the end of annual and lifetime caps on certain forms of coverage — would require the acquiescence of Senate Democrats, which is highly unlikely.

In essence, the Republicans could not muster sufficient votes by themselves to undo most of the regulations and benefits of the law, but could for the parts that pay for them.

(More here.)