Swept to power in this week’s midterm elections, Republican Party leaders have publicly signaled their intention to rollback many provisions of the large-scale overhauls of the American health insurance system passed earlier this year by Democrats at the behest of President Barack Obama.
Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker of the House-elect John Boehner both voiced their strong opposition to the president’s health care agenda. “We can – and should – propose and vote on straight repeal, repeatedly,” McConnell said.
Reuters says McConnell’s strategy against many parts of the healthcare reform bill will be to deny funding for provisions which have already passed but have yet to go into effect. The news agency also said Democrats fired back, with a spokesman for Senate majority leader Harry Reid saying “it speaks volumes that the first thing on Republicans’ ‘to do’ list is to give power back to big health insurance companies.”
The coming months and years of debate over healthcare reform will shape the American health care system for decades to come, experts say.
