Senate passes PPACA blocker bill

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated with the final vote on the legislation.

Members of the Senate have voted 52-47 for a version of a House bill, H.R. 3762, that would block implementation of major Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) commercial health insurance market provisions by killing a key PPACA funding mechanism.

The bill would also cancel the PPACA individual coverage mandate, the PPACA employer coverage reporting requirements, the PPACA employer coverage mandate requirements, and the PPACA medical plan excise tax. Another section would defund Planned Parenthood.

The Senate voted 90-10 to add an amendment proposed by Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., that would kill the PPACA Cadillac plan excise tax, a tax on high-cost health benefits packages that’s supposed to start to apply in 2018.

All Democrats in the Senate voted against the bill. Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Mark Kirk of Illinois, also voted against it. All other Republicans voted for the bill. 

See also: PPACA Cadillac plan tax pie: Hard to slice?

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor that the existence of PPACA blocks real health reform.

“Americans are living with the consequences of this broken law and its broken promises every day,” McConnell said. “Its negative effects are often felt in the most personal and visceral ways. And Americans are tired of being condescended to.”

The White House has put out a statement saying the major proposed Senate amendments to the bill would result in millions of individuals remaining uninsured or losing the insurance they have today.

More than 15 million people have gained health coverage since the start for the first PPACA open enrollment period, in October 2013, administration officials said.