Camp: Healthcare Repeal is Dead

The Huffington Post reports:

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, acknowledged Thursday that Republican plans to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature health care law were “dead.” Instead, Camp predicted, the GOP would turn its focus to overturning the most controversial portion of that legislation: the mandate requiring individuals to buy insurance.

"Obviously, I voted to repeal the bill and you pretty much know where I am on replacement because I put out a bill last year on that," Camp said. "Is the repeal dead? I don’t think the Senate is going to do it, so I guess, yes."

Camp added, "In terms of the House, I put out a bill [to replace the law]. We know where I stand.”

“I think we have to see where this [health care] lawsuit that is working its way through the courts goes,” he said. “I’m monitoring that pretty closely. The individual mandate, I think, we need to get an answer from the courts on that. ... I do think we may have a vote to repeal that provision some time in this Congress ... the individual mandate.”

A chief plank of the 2010 GOP platform was to wipe the Affordable Care Act from the books and replace it with something else. The latter promise has long since dissipated. But Republican leadership still held on to the former -- attempting to attach repeal language, most recently, to the continuing resolution to fund the federal government.