House can repeal Obamacare insurance tax, but Senate stands in way

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – House proponents of a bill that would repeal Obamacare’s health insurance tax have the numbers. But will it matter – again – in the end, with a Senate stifling any attempt to kill a tax one analysis predicts will add thousands of dollars in individual premiums over the next decade?

As of Monday afternoon, H.R. 763 had reached 221 co-sponsors – the vast majority of whom are Republicans.  The bill now appears to have the support of a majority of members, on its way to easy passage.

But the Senate, controlled by Democrats, has balked at nearly every attempt by the Republican-controlled House to repeal all or parts of the Affordable Care Act.

The House has tried 37 times to smother Obamacare. Even if the Senate passed the bill, President Obama, the namesake of the contentious law, would have to sign it. That’s as likely as Jay-Z bunking with John Boehner on a Cuba dream vacation.  Then the House and the Senate would need enough votes to override a certain presidential veto.

Proponents of H.R. 763 know the numbers, but they say the tax on health insurance providers is bad math, costing consumers in the end.

U.S. Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wisconsin, signed on as a bill co-sponsor in February. He said taxing health insurance companies is a “quintessential example of what is wrong with the health care law.”

Read more at Watchdog.org

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