The new bill was sponsored by Bill Cassidy. House back to anti-Obamacare votes

House Republicans on Thursday returned to the Obamacare well for another vote against the law, this time to allow consumers to stay on once-canceled plans until 2019.

The House approved the bill, 247-167, with the support of all Republicans and 25 Democrats. It was the first vote on the health care law since April.


The bill, targeted at President Barack Obama’s promise that consumers would be able to keep their health plans under his signature health law, was sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy, who is in a tight race to unseat Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in Louisiana.

( Also on POLITICO: GOP looks to go on offense for Senate)

“The president and his allies in Congress tried to sell this health law to the American people by making false promises,” Cassidy said in a statement. “Each of these promises has been broken.”

The bill would allow insurers to keep selling health plans that are currently available in the group market to be offered through 2019. The scope is broader and longer-term than the administration’s decision to allow certain non-compliant plans to be extended.

The White House and congressional Democrats strongly opposed the move, saying that the scope of Cassidy’s bill would undermine key consumer protections in the health law, and would let plans charge women more than men or cap the amount of care someone could receive.

“Policies that reverse the progress made to extend quality, affordable coverage to millions of uninsured, hardworking, middle class families are not the solution,” the administration wrote in a warning saying that President Obama would veto the bill. “Rather than re-fighting old political battles to sabotage the health care law, the Congress should work with the Administration to improve the law and move forward.” The Democratic-led Senate, however, has no plans to vote on the bill.

Cassidy was campaigning on the veto threat even before the vote.

”Dr. Cassidy is on the cusp of passing legislation that would truly allow families to keep their health insurance and reduce our nation’s deficit by $1.25 billion,” his campaign wrote in a release Thursday morning. “The President, that Mary Landrieu supports 97 percent of the time, is now standing in the way.”

Twenty-five Democrats — most of whom are facing tight races this fall — joined Republicans. They included Reps. Ron Barber and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Scott Peters of California, Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Patrick Murphy of Florida.

The health law put significant restrictions on what types of plans could be sold after 2014, but amid significant public backlash over plan cancellations, the administration essentially moved that deadline to 2015, and then to 2017, for individual market and small group policies. That means fewer consumers would get cancellation notices in October and November, just before they head to the polls.

That hasn’t stopped House Republicans from voting to move the deadline legislatively — and broaden the scope to the group market. The plan cancellations gave the GOP significant political ammunition that the president was breaking his promises.

“It seems that the president has quickly forgotten some of the promises he made to the American people about this law,” Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) said on the House floor Wednesday. “In 2009, in a speech before the American Medical Association, President Obama said we will keep this promise to the American people — if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away.”

The Cassidy bill would allow the noncompliant plans to be sold to anyone — not just people who already had them.

The vote Thursday was the first ACA-related action in the House since late April, when the House voted to allow changes to expatriate health plans. Prior to that, the House had voted on an Obamacare-related bill nearly every week that the House was in session this year.

Democrats blasted what they called the 53rd vote to undermine the health law.

“Rather than bringing forth the 53rd repeal of the Affordable Care Act, let’s move forward,” said Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) “The country’s ready to go.”