US House votes to trash Obamacare

WASHINGTON

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to repeal President Barack Obama's landmark healthcare plan.

The House approved the bill -- passed by the Senate last month -- with 240 votes in favor and 181 against, largely along party lines, seeking to prevent taxpayers’ money from going to Planned Parenthood and gutting the Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare.

Obama has vowed to block any effort to repeal the healthcare reform.

Speaker of the House, Republican Paul Ryan said his team's priority in 2016 was to offer "a clear choice with a bold pro-growth agenda".

"The people deserve a truly patient-centered health care system, and ultimately, this is going to require a Republican president," he said during a press conference.

On the other hand, Chair of the House Democrats' campaign committee, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, stressed that the vote would hurt the Republican Party's votes in 2016 elections.

"It's 2016 and House Republicans are still tightly bound to their old, failed playbook, which not only puts the health of millions of Americans at risk, but also threatens Republicans' standing with women, Latinos and other important groups of voters this election year," he said.

After the House approval, the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Sylvia Burwell also noted that the American people had an "unprecedented demand" for 2016 health coverage.

She said the Americans wanted Washington to build on the progress in order to increase access to coverage, drive down the growth of health costs and improve the quality of care.

"Unfortunately," she said, "today's partisan effort in the House of Representatives to repeal key parts of the ACA, along with its effective defunding of Planned Parenthood, does the opposite."

Since 2010, the Republicans in the Congress have been trying to abolish the Affordable Care Act.

Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that federal subsidies offered under the act were legal, helping to keep coverage affordable for citizens in 34 states and saving the bill from a potentially fatal blow.