Erin Kelly

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday failed to override President Obama's veto of a bill that would have repealed key provisions of Obamacare and stripped federal funding from Planned Parenthood.

The 241-186 vote to override the veto fell short of the two-thirds needed, ensuring that the Affordable Care Act will remain in place at least through the final year of Obama's term. Republican leaders, who have been criticized by Democrats for failing to come up with an alternative to Obamacare, said they plan to craft a replacement plan this year as a kind of preview for what they hope to do in the next Congress.

The vote came just hours after the president met with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to talk about issues where the White House and Congress might be able to work together. Those issues include criminal justice and mental health reform, the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership, Puerto Rico's financial crisis, the opioid epidemic, the Zika virus and efforts to cure cancer.

Republican House leaders knew that they would lose the Obamacare vote, but they are hoping to use the issue to convince voters to elect a GOP president to help them overturn the 2010 heath care law in the next Congress.

"The president is the only person standing in the way of what the American people want, so our job now is to stand up for them, to demonstrate for them who is on their side," said Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga.

However, even if the next president is a Republican, it could be tough to push a repeal of Obamacare through the Senate, where Democrats are expected to pick up seats in the November election and could even win the majority.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee, said it was fitting that the vote came on Groundhog Day since it was the 63rd time that House Republicans have tried to overturn Obamacare and the 12th time they have tried to defund Planned Parenthood.

"It probably breaks all records in wasting taxpayer time and money," Van Hollen said before the vote. "This is a futile gesture, part of an obsession to try to undo affordable care for 22 million Americans, and it's not going to happen."

The House voted 240-181 on Jan. 6 to gut Obamacare and cut off federal funding for Planned Parenthood for a year. The Senate approved the legislation in December by using a special budget procedure that required only a simple majority rather than the 60 votes typically needed to approve major legislation. Obama vetoed the bill on Jan. 8.

House sends president a bill to repeal Obamacare, defund Planned Parenthood

Democrats say Obamacare has helped nearly 18 million Americans gain medical coverage, allowed young people to stay on their parents' insurance plans until age 26, and stopped insurance companies from refusing to cover patients with pre-existing conditions. Republicans say the law has raised health care premiums and deductibles, limited patients' ability to choose their doctors, and hurt the economy.

The bill would have scrapped key sections of the health care law, including the mandate for individuals to buy health insurance and for employers with more than 50 workers to provide insurance to employees. It also would have cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500 million a year from the federal government to provide cancer screenings, medical checkups and birth control services.

Planned Parenthood has been under attack by conservatives since anti-abortion activists released undercover videos last year allegedly showing group officials talking about illegally selling tissue from aborted fetuses for profit. Planned Parenthood has denied violating any laws, and the group announced last fall that it would stop taking reimbursement for supplying tissue to medical labs for research.

Last week, a Texas grand jury investigating the videos indicted two of the people who made them.

The grand jury in Harris County indicted David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt on a felony charge of tampering with a governmental record. Daleiden was also indicted on a misdemeanor charge of “prohibition of the purchase and sale of human organs." The grand jury declined to indict anyone from Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast — the initial target of the investigation.

"Our (Republican) colleagues have a lot of gall to bring this to the floor after the Texas court decision," Van Hollen said Tuesday.

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Americans' tax dollars should not go to any group that provides abortions. Under federal law, Planned Parenthood cannot use federal money to perform abortions except in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is in danger. Critics of the group say that federal funding for medical services allows Planned Parenthood to use more of its private donations for abortions.

"This government-financed war on the innocent unborn has got to stop," Brady said.