The White House issued an unequivocal veto threat of House GOP legislation to delay the individual mandate for a year, after the Obama administration decided to delay the less important employer mandate for one year.
The GOP’s plan is to hold a vote on legislation to authorize the employer mandate delay (which the administration believes is unnecessary) and follow it up immediately with a vote to also delay the individual mandate for a year.
“If the President were presented with H.R. 2667 and H.R. 2668, he would veto them,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement.
The full White House OMB statement:
The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 2667 and H.R. 2668 because the bills, taken together, would cost millions of hard‑working middle class families the security of affordable health coverage and care they deserve. Rather than attempting once again to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which the House has tried nearly 40 times, it’s time for the Congress to stop fighting old political battles and join the President in an agenda focused on providing greater economic opportunity and security for middle class families and all those working to get into the middle class.
The Affordable Care Act gives people greater control over their own health care and has already improved many aspects of the Nation’s health care system. Because of the Affordable Care Act, tens of millions of Americans who have previously been denied coverage due to a pre-existing medical condition will now be covered. The nearly one in two Americans under the age of 65 with pre‑existing medical conditions will have the peace of mind that comes from knowing that they can’t be dropped from their health plan or denied coverage because of those conditions. House passage of H.R. 2667 and H.R. 2668 will undermine this security for tens of millions of Americans with pre-existing conditions.
H.R. 2667 is unnecessary, and H.R. 2668 would raise health insurance premiums and increase the number of uninsured Americans. Enacting this legislation would undermine key elements of the health law, facilitating further efforts to repeal a law that is already helping millions of Americans stay on their parents’ plans until age 26, millions more who are getting free preventive care that catches illness early on, and thousands of children with pre-existing conditions who are now covered.
If the President were presented with H.R. 2667 and H.R. 2668, he would veto them.
