The following is a list of efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (commonly called the ACA or "Obamacare"), which had been enacted by the 111th United States Congress on March 23, 2010.
[1]: i In October 2013, there was a partial shutdown of government operations that lasted over two weeks because of a disagreement between the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-led House over the inclusion of ACA language in the FY2014 temporary spending bill.
[2]: ii In 2011, after Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives, one of the first votes held was on a bill titled "Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act" (H.R.
[4] House Democrats proposed an amendment that repeal not take effect until a majority of the Senators and Representatives had opted out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program; Republicans voted down the measure.
[18][19][20] Senate Republicans threatened to block appointments to relevant agencies, such as the Independent Payment Advisory Board[21] and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The bill would have partially repealed the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, notably the individual and employer mandates as well as the taxes on Cadillac insurance plans.
[31] In January 2017, the Congressional Budget Office submitted its report on the estimated impact on insurance coverage and premiums with the repeal of ACA through H.R.
3, that contained language allowing the repeal of the Affordable Care Act through the budget reconciliation process, which disallows a filibuster in the Senate.
[33][34][35][36][1] In spite of efforts during the vote-a-rama (a proceeding in which each amendment was considered and voted upon for about 10 minutes each until all 160 were completed) that continued into the early hours of the morning, the repeal failed.
[38] President Trump signed an executive order on January 20, 2017, his first day in office, that according to then White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer would "ease the burden of Obamacare as we transition from repeal and replace".
[52] A spokesman for the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that a vote was planned to occur before September 30, which was the deadline to pass bills under budget reconciliation.
[57] On October 12, 2017, President Donald Trump ended by executive order government subsidies paid to health insurance companies to help pay out-of-pocket costs for low-income people.
[62] The bill was signed into law on December 22, 2017 by Donald Trump,[63] with the loss of individual mandate taxation being set to take effect January 1, 2019.