The United States Senate on Thursday took measures to initiate dismantling of the Affordable care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, by asking committees to draft the legislation to repeal President Barack Obama's health insurance programme.
Barack Obama asks Democrats to fight for Obamacare even as Republicans push to repeal it
The Republican-majority Senate voted 51-48 towards initiating the repealing process and now the resolution has gone to the House of Representatives. United States President-elect Donald Trump is against Obamacare and had pledged to scrap the health insurance programme during his presidential campaign. Republican majorities in both chambers of the Senate also wish to do away with Democratic Party's health care programme.
Though, Republicans have said that doing away with Obamacare could take months and coming up with an insurance programme to replace it will take even longer, Trump wants prompt action against Obama's health insurance programme. Trump on Wednesday said that repeal and replacement of Obamacare should happen "essentially simultaneously," Reuters reported.
The Affordable Care Act offers health insurance coverage to 20 million uninsured people in America who could not afford expensive insurance from private healthcare firms. The health insurance coverage was extended by Medicaid and also through online exchanges where people with ACA can avail income-based subsidies.
The Republican majority, however, has been against Obamacare and even deemed it as government overreach. The party wants to replace the federal insurance programme by giving the states more control over healthcare, rather than the federal government. However, some Republicans recently have expressed concerned about the party's initiative of pushing the repealing process of Obamacare without a proper replacement policy in place.
US House Speaker Paul Ryan had recently said that he wanted replacement provisions in the legislation repealing Obamacare, but Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said that packing so many provisions would not be easy considering the rules of the Senate.
