Get ready for gridlock.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans could keep their promises to stop healthcare reform even if they cannot repeal it, simply by blocking legislation needed to pay for it, one expert argued on Wednesday.
Control of one house of Congress could give the Republicans power to cripple the law, creating "zombie legislation," healthcare expert Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution wrote in a commentary in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Affordable Care Act passed in March without a single Republican vote. It is supposed to get health insurance to 32 million Americans who currently lack it, help set up local clinics to help provide needed care, set new standards for health insurance and, eventually, begin to transform the fragmented U.S. healthcare system.
The legislation authorizes spending, but the actual cash must be appropriated in a second process. The ACA has more than 100 separate authorizations calling for spending of well over $105 billion between now and 2019.
How Republicans Could Block Healthcare Reform