House OKs grandfathering expansion bill

"For the last six weeks the White House stood idly by ignoring the pleas of millions," said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and lead sponsor of the legislation.  

"Our straightforward, one-page bill says, if you like your current coverage, you should be able to keep it. The president should heed his own advice and work with us, the Congress, as the founders intended, not around the legislative process."  

Democrats said H.R. 3350 is just another in a long line of attacks on PPACA from Republicans who have already voted repeatedly to repeal it.

"It would take away the core protections of that law," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif. "It creates an entire submarket of substandard health care plans." 

Democratic opposition to the House measure was based in part on a fear that opening cheaper substandard plans to all comers could wind up driving premiums higher for the rest of the population.

The concern they express is that younger, healthier Americans would be attracted to the cheaper coverage, rather than seek out a plan that conforms with the Obamacare requirements.

Younger, healthier individuals are generally less expensive to cover for an insurer, and the more they shun the government-run insurance exchanges set up under the law, the higher the premiums could be for the relatively older, sicker customers who shop there.

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Julie Pace and Alan Fram in Washington and David Eggert in Detroit contributed to this report. Allison Bell also contributed to this report.

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