US Senate rejects repeal of Obama's health care law

Feb 2, 2011, 23:38 GMT

Washington - The US Senate on Tuesday rejected an attempt by Republicans to repeal the massive health care overhaul that was approved last year as a centrepiece of President Barack Obama's domestic policy agenda.

The vote fulfilled a promise by conservative lawmakers to seek to overturn the legislation after the Republican Party made major gains in November's congressional elections. Voters are sharply divided over the reforms that opponents deride as 'Obamacare.'

The lower House of Representatives, which voters put back into Republican hands at the start of the year, already voted on January 26 to roll back the legislation, which aims to extend health insurance to about 30 million Americans that have no coverage.

The Senate's rejection of that repeal by 47-51 was expected, as Obama's left-leaning Democrats still hold a majority in the upper legislative chamber. The vote saw all Republicans voting in favour of the measure and all Democrats present voting against the repeal.

But the vote marked just the latest salvo in a battle that ran throughout Obama's two years in office and has shown no signs of ending since Obama signed the major package of health reforms into law in March.

Republicans have vowed to do everything in their power to halt the implementation of Obama's health reforms, which aim to extend access to health insurance to about 30 million Americans that currently have no coverage.

A federal judge in Florida this week ruled in favour of 26 states that challenged the health law's requirement that individuals purchase health insurance. The so-called individual mandate is almost certain to end up before the US Supreme Court.

Conservatives sought to capitalize on the decision. Senator Jim DeMint said the court had backed Republican arguments that forcing Americans to purchase health insurance violated the US Constitution.

'We must repeal the bill in its entirety because at the very heart ... that individual mandate violates the highest law of our land,' DeMint said.

Democratic Senator Richard Durbin noted that many of the country's biggest legislative achievements including civil rights, public pensions and minimum wage laws had been ruled unconstitutional by lower judges before being upheld by the Supreme Court.

'Let's not get carried away with lower court decisions that are clearly split on this issue,' Durbin said.

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