CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-WASHINGTON, D.C.- The U.S. House of Representatives will vote today on a bill that would scrap and replace Obamacare, former president Barack Obama's signature universal health care initiative that is officially known as the Affordable Care Act.
If the proposed federal legislation that Republicans say will likely passes in the House, it would thereafter need approval by the Republican dominated U.S. Senate to become law, an uphill battle pundits have said.
The GOP bill, dubbed the American Healtccare Act, was pulled from consideration in March as the controversial measure pushed by President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and a cadre of congressional Republicans was headed for a failure vote.
The House GOP bill at issue, a measure to repeal and replace Obamacare that is laced with tax credits and other accommodations for the nation's most wealthiest people, has been amended with Trump's approval to gain support from at least two congressional moderates that have flipped to yes because the amendment contains an added $8 billion to partially address preexisting conditions.
The bill phases out Obamacare and its requirement for all Americans to hold health care insurance in coming years in favor of tax credits, and allows states to opt out completely, among other provisions.
More than 24 million Americans will lose insurance over the next decade, which is also why Democrats oppose the bill.
The previous bill excluded a preexisting conditions clause that would require insurance companies to cover people with preexisting conditions, a provision in the amended bill that allocates $8 billion to offset any fallout and that congressional Democrats and experts say is insufficient and will not suffice as to the current provision for preexisting medical conditions afforded under Obamacare
Obamacare currently provides health insurance for more that 20 million Americans, Black and poor people included.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and former vice president Joe Biden led a rally on March 22 outside of the capital in Washington D.C. to cerebrate the 7th anniversary of Obamacare, Pelosi subsequently denouncing the bill as undemocratic and against disenfranchised Americans that need heath care the most.
Led by the NAACP, Civil Rights organizations and Black leaders across the country panned any repeal, saying Obamacare is a health care savior to the Black community and poor and elderly people, and women and children that lacked accessibility until Obama rescued them
"I oppose this bill with every breath in my body," said longtime Congressman John Lewis in speaking on the House floor in March before the planned vote in March that was later canceled.
A federal lawmaker representing Georgia who is Black and marched with the late Civil Rights icon the Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis said "We must not give up. We can do better."
Ohio 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge, a Cleveland Democrat whose largely Black congressional district includes parts of the majority Black major metropolitan city of Cleveland, called the bill, and its amendment set for a vote today, a sham that benefits the wealthy and the healthy, and undermines the sick and the poor.
"For all of the rhetoric about freedom and choices this bill sends a clear message to every American as to where the priorities of the Republicans lie," said Fudge in trouncing the original version of the bill in March.
9th Congressional District Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat whose congressional district extends to Cleveland deemed the bill, in its original and amended form " a tax cut for the rich."
And Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said in a press release to Cleveland Urban News.Com that "Ohioans will remember who stood with them in opposing this disastrous proposal."
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