Senate takes step toward repealing Obamacare.
+ Regulatory
Jamie Barrand | Dec 5, 2015

Senate takes step toward repealing Obamacare

One of the U.S. Senate's most vocal opponents of President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- more commonly known as Obamacare -- has been Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS). So, when the Senate passed the Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act on Dec. 3, which would effectively do away with Obamacare, Roberts expressed his enthusiasm.

“I have long said that my priority in the Republican Senate is to repeal and replace Obamacare, and the Senate has taken a huge step in doing just that,” Roberts said. “Obamacare is crushing our employers and driving up costs for patients. We continue to see higher costs, less choice for individuals and higher taxes. We need to repeal Obamacare and work to fix health care.”

Two amendments to the bill were made by Roberts. One would eliminate the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which the Obama administration put in place to limit patients' treatment options. The second would do away with the part of the ACA that does not allow patients to pay for non-prescription and over-the-counter medications from their health savings accounts.

The U.S. House of Representatives will get the next look at the bill and will decide whether or not to approve the changes the Senate made to it. After that, President Obama will either sign it into law or veto it.

The measure takes away many of the basic tenets of the ACA - enough of them, Roberts said, to make it "crumble under its own weight.”

Roberts has represented the state of Kansas in the U.S. Senate since 1997. Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1936, Roberts previously served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1981 to 1997. He was educated at Kansas State University and is married to Franki.

He serves on the following committees: Standing Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Committee on Finance; Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Select Committee on Ethics; and Committee on Rules & Administration.

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