UPDATE: This post was updated on 11/20/13 to correct the details on the Upton bill. That legislation would not permanently grandfather health care plans purchased in the individual market. In addition, the White House statement stating the reasons why President Obama will veto the bill is included below.

Largely overlooked in last Friday’s House vote to alter
Obamacare is that Congressman Gary Peters, who has staunchly defended and
applauded the Affordable Care Act for years, voted for the House Republican
bill to substantially alter the ACA.

The 39 House Democrats who bailed on the president
consisted almost entirely of lawmakers who represent swing districts that pose
tough re-election bids in 2014. But Peters resides in one of the safest
districts in Michigan, a Deep Blue territory that largely consists of southeast
Oakland County.

Peters turned his back on Obamacare because he faces a
potentially tough race in 2014 for U.S. Senate, not because he’s worried about
re-election to the House. Peters is favored to defeat the GOP’s presumptive nominee,
former Michigan secretary of state Terri Lynn Land, but the Republican Party
has relentlessly pounded Peters for standing by an Obamacare system that has
been a disaster so far.

 
Regardless of his reasoning, Peters voted for a bill sponsored
by fellow Michigan Congressman Fred Upton, a west Michigan Republican, that
would alter the ACA by reverting back to the old ways in the
individual insurance market.

Unlike President Obama’s 1-year reprieve, Upton, a west Michigan Republican,
would also allow anyone to go into the individual market in the short term and
purchase a low-cost, low-quality plan, even if it doesn’t meet Obamacare standards.

That would dramatically undermine the entire ACA system
by creating two different “risk pools” within the insurance industry – one for
healthy people willing to gamble on a catastrophic, financially ruinous illness
or injury in the future; and one for people who have had a few health problems –
from minor to major – that just want comprehensive coverage and peace of mind.

The president has promised to veto the Upton bill. I
wonder if the White House is now promising not to lift a finger to help Peters’
Senate campaign.

______________________________________________________________________

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
O F F I C E O F M A N A G E M E N T A N D B U D G E T
W AS H I N G T O N , D . C . 2 0 5 0 3
 
November 14, 2013
STATEMENT OF
ADMINISTRATION
POLICY
H.R. 3350
–
Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013
(Rep. Upton, R-MI, and 161
cosponsors)
 
The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R.
3350 because it threatens the health
care security of hard working, middle class families.
The Nation is experiencing the slowest
growth in health spending in the last 50 years.
Since 2008, growth in private health insurance
spending stayed between three and four percent –
significantly lower than earlier this decade
when growth reached almost 12 percent.
With health care costs rising at such low rates, this bill
would be a major step back.
 
H.R. 3350 rolls back the progress made by allowing insurers
Insurers to continue to sell new
plans
that deploy practices such as not
offering
coverage for people with
pre-existing
conditions, charging women more
than men, and continuing yearly caps
on
the amount of care that enrollees
receive.
The Administration supports policies
that
allow people to keep the health
plans that
they have. But, policies that
reverse the
progress made to extend quality,
affordable
coverage to millions of uninsured,
hardworking,
middle class families are not the solution.
Rather than refighting old political
battles to
sabotage the health care law, the
Congress
should work with the Administration
to
improve the law and move forward.
If the President were presented with
H.R.
3350, he would veto it.

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