Independent Women's Voice's "Obamacare Repeal Pledge"
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The Obamacare Repeal Pledge was created as a joint project of Independent Women's Voice and American Majority Action, intended to "create accountability" for politicians to repeal the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The pledge was written with various versions for different political offices, such as congressional incumbents or state insurance commissioner candidates. According to the pledge's website, 97 politicians have signed the pledge as of January 5, 2017.[1]
Text of pledge
Below is the text of the pledge for congressional incumbents:
| “ | I pledge to vote for all bills which seek to REPEAL the health care bill, HR 3590, signed into law on March 23, 2010.*
To that end, I do now and will in the next Congress endorse and vote for all measures, including discharge petitions, leading to its defunding, deauthorization, and repeal. I shall do so whether those measures are taken for the whole of the bill or those component parts that impose mandates, restrict patient and doctor choice and access, violate individual freedom and privacy, reduce healthy competition, increase costs, or raise taxes.
**The Repeal Pledge’s Advisory Board, recognizing the tactic of attaching poison pills to otherwise qualifying legislation, will determine which legislative efforts are legitimate for the purpose of this pledge.[2] |
” |
| —Repeal Obamacare Pledge[3] | ||
Overview
The Obamacare Repeal Pledge was created as a joint project of Independent Women's Voice, a 501(c)(4) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that advocates for "conservative free market solutions," and American Majority Action, an organization that encourages support of political "candidates who favor limited government, individual freedom and protecting the free market."[4][5]
According to its website, the pledge was intended to "create accountability" with one pledge for political candidates and incumbents and one for voting constituents. The pledge was written in several versions intended for different signers:[6]
- Congressional candidates
- Congressional incumbents
- Presidential candidates
- Governors
- Governor candidates
- Attorneys General
- Attorney General candidates
- State legislators
- State legislator candidates
- Insurance commissioner incumbents
- Insurance commissioner candidates
- Constituents
To view a full list of political candidates and incumbents who signed the pledge, click here.
Plan for repeal
USA Today op-ed
Heather Higgins, president and CEO of Independent Women's Voice, and Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment, penned an op-ed in USA Today outlining a proposal for how to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).[7]
As for the repeal process, first, the proposal suggested issuing an executive order to overturn a 2013 rule from the Office of Personnel Management. The ruling said that members of Congress and their staffers would have to enroll in health plans through Washington, D.C.'s exchange for small businesses. Under the rule, the federal government could also still make premium contributions for members of Congress and their staffers. The proposal from Higgins and Kerpen argued that by overturning the rule, Congress would be "motivated to rapidly solve the problems crippling these markets," referring to the health insurance exchanges established under the ACA.[7][8]
Second, the proposal supported the creation of a "parallel insurance market immediately, permitting people who want insurance to buy any state-legal insurance they want." To accomplish this, the proposal suggested including language in the repeal bill that removes penalties for insurers that sell health plans that do not comply with the ACA's requirements. The proposal also recommended that the repeal bill include a transitional policy to prevent individuals with preexisting conditions and low-income individuals from losing health coverage, primarily through funding state-run high-risk pools.[7]
The op-ed also argued against passing a bill similar to the partial repeal bill vetoed by President Barack Obama in 2016. Higgins and Kerpen also advised Congress to enact a replacement law "immediately, not two or three years in the future."[7]
Wall Street Journal op-ed
Heather Higgins penned a separate op-ed in The Wall Street Journal outlining another proposal for repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The op-ed suggested that the House of Representatives use regular order, rather than reconciliation, to pass a repeal-and-replace bill. Peter C. Hanson of the Brookings Institution defines regular order as a "budget procedure for debating and passing individual appropriations bills in each chamber" of Congress. The op-ed argued that using reconciliation, which can only impact the budgetary and fiscal provisions of the ACA, "would accelerate ObamaCare's collapse, but it would also mean the GOP, not ObamaCare's fundamental flaws, would get blamed for every cancellation and uncovered patient."[9][10]
In her op-ed, Higgins argued that on the other hand, a regular order bill would easily pass the House and thus put pressure on the Senate to give it full consideration. If Senate Democrats did not allow consideration of the bill, Higgins suggested that Republicans could vote to end the filibuster against deliberation, which could be done with a simple majority. In this way, the Senate could hold a vote on a full repeal-and-replace plan, rather than repealing some fiscal provisions now and implementing a full replacement sometime in the future.[9]
News feed
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Obamacare Repeal Pledge. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
Footnotes
- ↑ Obamacare Repeal Pledge, "Full List of Signers," accessed January 5, 2017
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Obamacare Repeal Pledge, "The Repeal Pledge (Incumbent Version)," accessed January 1, 2016
- ↑ Independent Women's Voice, "Who We Are," accessed January 4, 2017
- ↑ American Majority Action, "What We Do," accessed January 4, 2017
- ↑ Obamacare Repeal Pledge, "The Pledge," accessed January 4, 2017
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 USA Today, "GOP needs to act fast on Obamacare: Column," January 4, 2017
- ↑ The Hill, "Rule finalizes ObamaCare 'fix' for lawmakers, staff members," September 30, 2013
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 The Wall Street Journal, "To End ObamaCare, Be Bold," February 26, 2017
- ↑ Brookings Institution, "Restoring regular order in congressional appropriations," November 19, 2015
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