WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted to prohibit the government from providing health-care subsidies under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act until a system is in place to verify recipients’ household income.
U.S. Reps. Tim Griffin of Little Rock, Rick Crawford of Jonesboro and Steve Womack of Rogers were co-sponsors and all voted for the legislation, as did Rep. Tom Cotton of Dardanelle. All are Republicans.
The proposal, H.R. 2775, passed the House 235-191 with four members not voting. All Republicans voting cast “yes” votes. All but five Democrats voted “no.”
The No Subsidies Without Verification Act would block health-premium tax credits until the Health and Human Services secretary certifies that a system is in place to verify “the household income and coverage requirements of individuals applying for such credits and cost-sharing reduction.”
Administration officials originally said they’d use self-reporting of income and audits to ensure that only eligible recipients receive the subsidies. Republicans said those safeguards were not sufficient.
Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act’s health exchanges is scheduled to begin Oct. 1.
After the vote, Griffin released a statement calling the administration’s plan “outrageous.”
“The Obama Administration is preparing to spend billions of dollars on fraudulent exchange subsidies by not verifying that each applicant is eligible to receive them. In effect, President Obama has issued an invitation for waste, fraud and abuse in a program that is already raising healthcare costs and lowering wages for thousands of hardworking families,” he said.
Earlier this week, the White House released a “Statement of Administration Policy” which said the president’s senior advisers would encourage him to veto the legislation if it passed.
“H.R. 2775 is unnecessary because the Secretary of Health and Human Services has already put in place an effective and efficient system for verification of eligibility for premium tax credits and cost sharing reductions,” the White House statement said.
The Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday said the GOP proposal would change little.
“A program is currently being put in place to verify income and coverage qualifications for the tax credits and subsidies. … Accordingly, we expect that the Secretary would certify before the beginning of 2014, when premium tax credits and cost-sharing subsidies would first be paid, that the requirements in H.R 2775 are satisfied,” the Congressional Budget Office wrote.
While passing the Republican-controlled House, the bill isn’t expected to come up for a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
The House has now voted 41 times since 2010 to defund, delay or modify the Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare, The Associated Press reported.
Crawford said the administration’s use of self-reporting invites “widespread abuse of the system [and] underscores the fact that the government has not sufficiently prepared to implement the very law it has had nearly four years to plan for.” In a written statement, he called for a long-term delay of Obamacare, warning that it would “choke economic growth and balloon the debt to unprecedented levels.”
In a written statement, Womack said he was proud to co-sponsor H.R. 2775, saying it “reduces fraud and holds the administration accountable.”
“The administration has made it undeniably clear: it cannot implement Obamacare on schedule,” Womack said. “So instead, it is simply picking and choosing which parts of the law it does not enforce - like verifying exchange subsidy eligibility, ignoring the exposure to fraud to prop up this unworkable law.”
Cotton’s spokesman, Caroline Rabbitt, did not return phone calls Thursday.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/13/2013