House votes to repeal health care reform

With a symbolic and near party-line vote to repeal President Barack Obama's landmark health care overhaul, Republicans Wednesday said they now have delivered on the campaign promise that won them control of the U.S. House.

After seven hours of debate on the House floor over the past two days - most of it civil and all of it reliably partisan - the repeal bill passed by a vote of 245 to 189, with four Democrats joining the unanimous Republican majority.

"Repeal means keeping a promise," said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). "This is what we said we would do."

But the bill to "repeal and replace" the massive, far-reaching health care overhaul enacted last year faces opposition by Democrats who control the Senate and White House, making the GOP victory largely symbolic.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) congratulated the House GOP and said, "I hope the Senate will soon follow suit with a vote of its own."

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) replied in a terse statement: "Unlikely."

Still, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said this week that key House committees will move ahead in the months to come with hearings and working sessions to come up with alternatives to Obama's signature achievement.

The House debate and vote this week serves as a jumping-off point for both parties to define their political differences, especially on the role of the federal government in society, as the country heads toward the presidential campaign and next year's federal elections.

In his floor remarks Wednesday, Boehner said the division between Republicans and Democrats over the health care law is reflected in their philosophies.

"Both sides of the aisle have very different viewpoints on what the government role in health care should be," he said.

And while Republicans repeatedly castigated the health care law as a "government takeover" of health care, Democrats criticized their opponents for wanting to turn over health care to insurance companies that seek profits by limiting health care coverage.

The debate turned sharper Wednesday as both sides stepped up attacks on each other. Three Democrats from Long Island took Republicans to task in floor remarks.

"We appear to be doing reasonably well with regard to civility, but less so with honesty," said Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton). "Once again we tackle health care, and the debate is sliding back to one-line attacks and misrepresentations instead of the new health care law's merits or its actual impact on real Americans."

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) complained Republicans shut Democrats out of the process, while Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) cited two Long Island residents - Hannah Watson of Bay Shore and Catherine Marquardt of North Babylon - who would suffer if the law's ban on denying insurance coverage for pre-existing conditions were repealed.

Neither Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) nor Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Roslyn Heights) weighed in during the debate.