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Obama administration threatens veto of bill preventing PPACA enforcement

Posted On: Jul. 31, 2013 12:00 AM CST

Obama administration threatens veto of bill preventing PPACA enforcement

President Barack Obama would veto legislation likely to be voted on by the House of Representatives this week that would bar the U.S. Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service from enforcing the health care reform law, the administration said Wednesday.

The legislation, H.R. 2009, “would raise health insurance premiums and increase the number of uninsured Americans and represents another attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, with no plan to replace it or policy to improve it,” the administration said in a statement released by the Office of Management and Budget.

Instead of attempting to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, lawmakers should work with the administration on an agenda to provide greater economic security to the middle class, the statement said.

If the legislation were to pass, regulators would be unable to enforce such key health care reform law provisions as those that will require — effective in 2015 — employers to offer coverage or pay a hefty fee and require, starting next year, individuals to enroll in a health care plan or pay a fine.

Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., who introduced the measure, which now has 141 co-sponsors, said “we ought to take this common sense step to take the IRS out of health care.”