Tony Cook

Statehouse Bureau

Just moments after Indiana Republicans helped narrowly pass a repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the U.S. House, local and national Democrats pounced on the two congressman considering a run for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat in 2018 — a testament to the large role Thursday's health care vote is likely to play in the race.

The bill was also a big win for Vice President Mike Pence, who lobbied hard for the measure on Capitol Hill.

“Welcome to the beginning of the end of Obamacare,” Pence declared before introducing President Donald Trump at an afternoon news conference in the White House Rose Garden.

Like other Republicans, Pence has long criticized former President Barack Obama's signature health care law, even as it enabled him to expand an alternative Medicaid program as governor in Indiana.

But after a failed effort to repeal and replace Obamacare earlier this year, the measure's fate was uncertain. Trump dispatched Pence to work key congressional figures this week in an effort to revive the bill. He was often accompanied by his former Indiana health care consultant Seema Verma, who is now the administrator of the nation's Medicaid and Medicare programs.

What emerged was an amended measure on Wednesday that House leadership quickly brought to the floor for a vote. It passed 217-213. The measure now moves to the Senate.

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"There's no doubt that Donald Trump picked Mike Pence partly because of his Washington experience," said Robert Dion, a political scientist at the University of Evansville. "To the extent that this bill finally passed the House as a result of the work put in by Mike Pence, this will be something of a feather in his cap."

The vote also allows Republicans — including Indiana Reps. Luke Messer and Todd Rokita — to say they fulfilled a yearslong promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, Obama's signature health care law.

But Democrats say the measure would roll back consumer protections and cause millions of people to lose their insurance coverage.

Competing claims about the bill, known as the American Health Care Act, are likely to echo well into the campaign for Indiana's Senate seat in 2018.

Messer, R-Shelbyville, and Rokita, R-Indianapolis, are considering challenging incumbent Democrat Joe Donnelly, who will be a top target for Republicans as they try to expand their slim 52-48 majority. Donnelly is the only Democrat elected statewide in Indiana, where Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points.

For Messer and Rokita, who could find themselves locked in a hard-fought GOP primary, the risks of voting against the bill after years of promising to replace Obamacare were too high to ignore, said Andy Downs, a political scientist at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Donnelly, meanwhile, will seek to pin any perceived weaknesses in the measure to his opponents.

"In some respects, all this has done is provide additional ammunition for topics we know are going to be discussed," Downs said. "They basically just restocked."

Democratic political operations at the state and federal level wasted no time in blasting Messer and Rokita. They noted that Republicans chose to vote on the bill before a full analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, which estimates the costs and benefits of proposed legislation.

“Republicans shoved this bill through the House as fast as they can because every time Americans take a look at their proposal, they see a glaring new problem," said John Zody, chairman of the Indiana Democratic Party. "If this proposal is signed into law, not only will tens of millions of Americans lose their health insurance, but countless others will face sky-rocketing premiums due to pre-existing conditions that are no fault of our own."

But Republicans pointed to rising premiums and shrinking insurance options as evidence that Obamacare was collapsing. Their plan will ultimately lower premiums for middle class Americans, they said.

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“Today is an exciting day for those of us who have been working and fighting to end Obamacare’s reign over this country,” Messer said from the House floor prior to the vote. “Today, the House will vote to move legislation forward that will repeal Obamacare and replace it with something far better.”

In a statement after the vote, Rokita said: “Whether piece by piece, or all at once, I will continue fighting to repeal the insidious Obamacare law because it has hurt so many people. Many, many more than it ever pretended to help. I'm proud to support President Trump and our collective efforts to fix the healthcare system for the American people."

The measure now moves to the Senate, where Donnelly has called for improving the Affordable Care Act rather than repealing and replacing it.

“Hard-working Hoosier families, including the more than 400,000 Hoosiers who have care through HIP 2.0 or the millions of Hoosiers with a pre-existing condition, deserve better than this disastrous legislation," he said of the House GOP plan. "We should be making our health care system better, not worse, and I remain focused on working together to improve health care coverage for Hoosiers.”





How the Indiana delegation voted

Yes

Jim Banks, R-Columbia City.

Susan Brooks, R-Carmel

Larry Bucshon, R-Newburgh

Trey Hollingsworth, R-Jeffersonville

Luke Messer, R-Shelbyville

Todd Rokita, R-Indianapolis

Jackie Walorski, R-Jimtown

No

Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville

Andre Carson, D-Indianapolis