Senate Democrats defeat GOP effort to reopen health care debate over HHS regulation

"Senate Democrats held together and beat back an attempt from Republicans to begin a piece-by-piece repeal of the healthcare law, defeating a resolution that would roll back an HHS rule on how new regulations apply to health insurance plans that existed before the overhaul bill was signed into law," Congress Daily reported. "The resolution failed, 59-40, on a party-line vote." The resolution, offered by Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., targeted the "grandfathering" rule issued by the Department of Health and Human Services. That regulation "allows plans that existed before March 23 -- the date the healthcare law was signed -- to be exempt from certain consumer protections enacted in the law, as long as plans do not significantly reduce benefits or raise consumer costs."

Enzi, who noted that HHS estimates only between 40 and 70 percent of plans will keep their grandfathered status through 2013, said that "the rule breaks President Obama's frequent promise that Americans could keep their health insurance if they liked it, and would subsequently force businesses to either pay more for health insurance or drop coverage" (McCarthy, 9/29).

The Hill: "'At least 47 separate times, President Obama promised "If you like what you have you can keep it." Unfortunately, the Obama administration has already broken that promise,' Enzi said on the floor before his motion came up for a vote. 'The final result of this new regulation will be that all Americans will eventually be forced to buy the kind of health insurance the federal government thinks you should have,' he added. ... Democrats and the White House responded that repealing the provision would undo important consumer protections and cause chaos. ... The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made repeal of the provision a priority" (Pecquet, 2/29).