House Completes ‘Symbolic’ Vote To Repeal Health Care Law

The vote was 245 to 189, with 3 Democrats joining all 242 Republicans in support of the repeal.

Alec Vachon, a health care analyst and former Senate Republican congressional health staffer, said the vote was symbolic, taking place because "Republicans think it played well with their base."

While health insurers support the law because it will expand coverage by 16 million people or an estimated $56.5 billion in revenue, agents are less supportive.

They want the law repealed, especially because of what the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU) calls the "unworkable" medical loss ratio (MLR) standards imposed through the legislation as well as the legislation's lack of "meaningful cost controls."

Agents have contended that their commissions have been cut by 50 percent starting this year because of the MLR formula restricts administrative costs as a percentage of premiums, and they especially fear that when the health exchange system goes into effect in 2014, they will become irrelevant.

Janet Trautwein, NAHU CEO, said, "We share Speaker John Boehner's grave concerns about [the health care law] and how little it does to control the rising costs of medical treatments, imposes significant new tax burdens on many Americans and fails to embrace private market-based mechanisms to guarantee access to affordable coverage for all."

The Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America (IIABA) "praised" the House for passing the legislation while acknowledging that its chances of passing the Senate are "slim."

Robert Rusbuldt, IIABA president and CEO, said that "Our members are both sellers and consumers of health insurance, and are therefore being hit twofold by the many negative consequences of the new health care law."

Charles Symington, IIABA senior vice president of government affairs,  added that the IIABA  "strongly urges the Senate to follow the House's action, but in recognition of the difficulty of passing a full repeal in the Senate and overriding an expected presidential veto, we also urge Congress to quickly fix the most onerous of the new law's provisions."

Joel Wood, senior vice president of government affairs for the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, said the Council "welcomes and supports" the House vote.

"But we have high anxiety about what happens now," he said, noting that as yet there is no full game plan for whittling back the impact of the law, "and, honestly, there is considerable Republican sentiment that they don't want to 'improve' it," Mr. Wood said.

At the same time, he said, there are major concerns about the legislation in the health agent and broker community, especially about the medical loss ratio formula.

"This is a major concern for us, as the clock has already been ticking since January 1, and we're already feeling significant impact, particularly in the small group markets, of how disruptive the formula will be," Mr. Wood said.

"We're going office to office on the Hill, and finding much sympathy for the spot we're in, on both sides of the aisle," he said. "But it's far too speculative to figure out how this is going to evolve through the year."