Congress made its first attempt to chip away at Obamacare on Thursday with the House approving a bill to cancel the law’s 30-hour workweek provision, though only a dozen Democrats showed support, meaning there will likely not be enough votes to override an expected veto.
The legislation, known as Save American Workers Act of 2015, would repeal the provision in the Affordable Care Act that defines the 30-hour-per-week work threshold that determines when businesses have to face the health insurance coverage mandate. Critics of the threshold say it scraps the traditional 40-hour workweek and takes pay out of Americans’ pockets – because some employers are cutting hours to below 30 a week to get around the law.
Chautauqua County’s representative in Congress Tom Reed was one of 252 members who voted in favor of the legislation. In supporting the measure, Reed said that the health care law is taking hours away from employees and making their paychecks smaller, creating a very damaging effect.
Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning), who voted in favor of the Save American Workers Act of 2015.
The bill would push up to 1 million people out of employer-sponsored insurance, and many of them would end up on Medicaid or on subsidized insurance plans on the health care exchanges. The Congressional Budget Office said that would cost taxpayers an additional $53 billion over the next decade. But both the White House and congressional Democrats said an even larger pool of workers — those who put in 40 hours per week — would have their hours cut to 39 or less if the bill becomes law.
House Republicans set the showdown as an initial test of how many Democrats would be willing to defect against a lame-duck president and after the GOP relentlessly attacked Obamacare in November’s election campaigns.
Despite passing by a vote of 252-172, there is still enough opposition from Democrats to sustain a presidential veto.
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