Fred Upton: We'll Repeal Individual Mandate If We Can't Get Whole Bill

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the incoming chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, whetted conservative appetites early in the year when he pledged not only to push for repeal of the president's health care reform law, but also suggested that the votes would be there to override a veto in the House.

That legislative math seemed a bit far-fetched. And even if House Republicans could corral two thirds of the chamber's votes there are small matters such as the Senate that Upton was ignoring.

On Tuesday, in a sit down interview with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, the Michigan Republican didn't tone down his forecast. But he made a slight alteration, pledging to hold repeal votes on specific provisions of the health care law, should the major repeal effort fail.

"I spoke with Senator Leader [Mitch] McConnell last week," said Upton. "He's excited about our efforts because ultimately, I think they will have a vote, and who knows they may have a majority in the Senate to also repeal it as we will have a majority, certainly, in the House. But the issue is not going away. We are going to come back and through hearings and through legislative initiatives we will look at things like the individual mandate. I'd bet that there will be a number of Democrats who vote against the Republicans on repealing it but in fact will say you know what that plank on insisting upon the individual mandate to purchase insurance, we will vote to take that out too."

An effort to remove the individual mandate would have, as Upton suggests, a more favorable audience than an attempt to real health care reform. Both centrist and liberal Democrats have deemed the provision either unconstitutional or superfluous. But that's hardly a guarantee of success. The private insurance industry, for one, would launch a full-bore lobbying effort to curb the effort, cognizant that they'd be saddled (legally) with covering millions of costly customers without the guarantee that the cheap, less sickly ones, would be required to buy their product.

Watch The Full Upton Video Below:

Comments

[chesterrush]

10:57 PM on 01/23/2011

Go ahead, Senate Republican­s. Try to dismantle Health Care Reform piece by piece. I'm eager to hear you explain to the American people why eliminatin­g the mandate also means that you have to bring back pre-existi­ng condition exclusions­. Or better yet, just eliminate the mandate separate from any repeal of the ban on pre-existi­ng condition discrimina­tion--the insurance companies will love that!

[raiderdev3826]

10:17 AM on 01/21/2011

Hey republicans, you want to get rid of the individual mandate? Then give us the public option and we have a deal. I just want competition between insurance companies

[pkafin]

03:35 PM on 01/19/2011

Cool. Repeal it, tax us, and provide rebates to those who can show that they have health insurance. There is no Constitutional issue with this approach and the result is the same, but with more paperwork.

[madame48]

08:15 PM on 01/17/2011

it's still ironic that the Repubs who wrote almost the same health plan , with mandates in the past...now hate it...cause Obama supports it.....same with gop cap and trade programs.now "socialism" the ONLY thing they want to do is prohibit an Obama term 2...NO MATTER how terrible their positions are for the country. That IS NOT patriotism, but its opposite

[Phxflyer]

11:34 AM on 01/12/2011

What is it about the veto power of the President that these guys don't understand?

[Atlanta2Brave]

06:31 PM on 01/12/2011

What about defunding don't you understand?

[Phxflyer]

07:34 PM on 01/12/2011

They can't defund this. But thanks for playing. Go Phillies.

[madame48]

08:17 PM on 01/17/2011

andYOU and your kids have healthcare ?or do you use the emergency hospital care that I am mandated to pay for?

[AFunkyNight]

10:08 AM on 01/12/2011

Repeal it ALL and replace it with .......................................................SINGLE PAYER.

[madame48]

08:18 PM on 01/17/2011

this will eventually happen, but only after the healthcare insurance giants have sucked America dry and there are more ininsured than insured

[MarcDel]

10:06 AM on 01/12/2011

I live in Fred's district. He has a long history of opposition without alternatives. Here again he refers to eliminating the mandate but makes no reference to how else we expand the insured pool to lower costs and to avoid costly non-insured emergency room care.

[SpreadthePanic]

09:36 AM on 01/12/2011

This seems like a winning situation - could even lead to Single Payer or the Public Option.

The Democrats wanted SP or the PO, but the GOP said that would hurt the current health care industry (namely insurance companies), specifically would be a job-killer.

The Democrats caved, but said that the insurance companies were going to have to change and stop denying people for pre-existing conditions or lifetime limits of care. The GOP/Insurance companies said that this would bankrupt them... unless everyone was required to get coverage, healthy or not.

The Democrats caved, and we got Health Care Reform that includes no Single Payer, no Public Option, keeps the Insurance Companies rolling in the dough, and we're all required to buy it. The Democrats claim victory, but the main features of the bill are the things the GOP asked for (but didn't have to attach any votes to!)

But now the GOP is botching this. They say the mandate is unconstitutional. If that goes away but the other protections stay, the insurance companies supposedly cannot afford to operate this way... which may require a public option for everyone to be able to get coverage. The GOPs saving grace could be that they can take credit for health care (we opposed the ObamaCare mandate, but we brought you real health care reform), but I doubt they want to change their position that drastically.

[Peartree3]

10:07 AM on 01/12/2011

Thanks. I was daring to entertain the same idea. Could happen! #98

[scjk67]

09:11 AM on 01/12/2011

Go for it GOP, the health insurance co. going to lose 30 million new customers....this is too funny, the GOP are just showboating to the TPers.

[Trepasky]

08:57 AM on 01/12/2011

Who bought the GOP their election through campaign funds?
They will decide what happens, not the GOP. Like all who dance with wealth and power, they are beholden to their benefactors.
They will do as they are told.

[Stuzzadelic]

09:10 AM on 01/12/2011

GOP - heh - they are the Iapdogs of the corporate elite.

[Dantee]

08:47 AM on 01/12/2011

One way or another, we've got to crush the middle-class, the working people, the taxpayer! We've got to make sure that they spend their lives struggling to survive! We've got to!

[scjk67]

09:15 AM on 01/12/2011

Pretty much sums up the Republicans point of view.

[madame48]

08:21 PM on 01/17/2011

yup, look at their own words..it's all there

[Eugene Skidmore]

08:33 AM on 01/12/2011

lets see.... if this country had single payer we`d be alot healthier as a country, more productive as a nation, most likely deal with "mass murderers" before they shoot, or stab, or bomb. where`s the downside?
"we" cant afford healthcare for all" yet we support a corrupt military budget which (in iraq and afghanistan) gives money to our adversaries not to fight and claim the "surge" is working and "victory" is at hand, while our young men and women sent there are "set up" as targets for the "radicals" they can`t persuade. billions in bogus contracts, 200 billion in missing cash, 150 billion in missing firearms, and who really knows what other "indescrepancies" are perpatrated at "taxpayers" expense.

[istvan13]

08:21 AM on 01/12/2011

Once again the Republican part puts politics before policy. There is almost zero chance any repeal can happen. Yet this is where they put their time and effort, time and effort paid for by our tax dollars. While they put little or no effort into jobs creation.

[ChicagoSuz]

08:13 AM on 01/12/2011

From the Article: "The private insurance industry, for one, would launch a full-bore lobbying effort to curb the effort, cognizant that they'd be saddled (legally) with covering millions of costly customers without the guarantee that the cheap, less sickly ones, would be required to buy their product."

From Me: "Duh."

[AFunkyNight]

10:07 AM on 01/12/2011

I just love that about you Suz ...the intellectual power that is there *wink :)
( plus the smile )

[ChicagoSuz]

09:32 PM on 01/12/2011

Hey, Irish!! Were you on holiday again? Your post made me laugh... you 'get' me... LOL
Fanned yet again!!

[RationalityPlease]

08:05 AM on 01/12/2011

Given that the mandate was a Republican idea in the first place, and given that the faux health INSURANCE reform bill is nothing more than a recycling of bills introduced several times over the last few decades by Republicans--carefully designed to thwart actual Health CARE reform--this would be very funny... if so many lives weren't hanging in the balance.

[Beau2]

08:12 AM on 01/12/2011

Nice spin. And, I do not blame you for wanting to detach your dim party from the bill. But, not one republican voted for the mess. It is ALL on the dims.

You guys made it, no matter where you got the lousy ideas. It needs to be repealed and replaced with ideas that will actually lower the costs for the majority.

[RationalityPlease]

08:19 AM on 01/12/2011

Not "spin"--factual history.

I'm not a Democrat, by the way. I'll never vote for a Republican but I can no longer support the Democratic Party now that it has been populated by so many refugees from the Republican Party that it is now right of the Republican party of my youth.

[istvan13]

08:22 AM on 01/12/2011

Nice comment. Beau2 is the individual that is attempting the spin, using the old and tired talking points.