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WASHINGTON, July 11 (UPI) -- Five Democrats joined U.S. House Republicans Wednesday in voting again to repeal the 2010 healthcare reform law that has come to be known as Obamacare. The House vote was 244-185 with Democratic Reps. Dan Boren of Oklahoma, Larry Kissell and Mike McIntyre, both of North Carolina, Jim Matheson of Utah and Mike Ross of Arkansas aligning with the Republican majority, The Hill reported.
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The vote follows the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the signature legislation of President Barack Obama's tenure in office.
The measure would appear to be dead in the water, however, since the Senate is controlled by the Democrats and Obama would veto it if it were to ever reach his desk.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., call the push to repeal the healthcare law "a total waste of taxpayer money."
"It's no wonder the American people think so little of this institution," Van Hollen said.
Democrats have noted House Republicans have now voted more than 30 times to repeal either all or part of the law.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California called the GOP effort "an undermining of fundamental fairness" because federal lawmakers would keep their benefits, The Hill said.
"You repeal this bill, which means you keep your federal health insurance benefits, while you take these current patient protections away from the American people," she said.
Prior to the vote, House Speaker John Boehner urged its passage.
"I rise today in strong support of H.R. 6079, legislation to repeal the president's healthcare law," the Ohio Republican said. "When this bill passed, we were promised this healthcare law would lower costs and help create jobs. ... One congressional leader even suggested it would create 400,000 new jobs. Guess what? It didn't happen. It is making our economy worse, driving up costs and making it harder for small businesses to hire new workers
"The American people were told that they'd come to like this bill once it passed. Didn't happen either. Most Americans not only oppose this law -- they support repealing it," Boehner said.
In remarks supplied by his officer, Boehner said a lot of things were promised but they didn't happen.
"The American people were told taxes on the middle class wouldn't go up if this bill passed," he said. "Well guess what? There are 21 tax increases in this healthcare law, and at least a dozen of them hit the middle class."
Boehner said what he called a "tax on health insurance providers will end up costing up to 249,000 jobs, according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses. A tax on healthcare manufacturers will put at as many as 47,100 jobs in jeopardy, according to one non-partisan estimate.
"Then you've got the employer mandate [to supply health insurance on the job], which will affect every job creator with 50 or more employees," he said. "Take White Castle, a company in my home state. They say that the employer mandate would eat up most of their net income starting in 2014. That's on account of just one provision in the law. And there is the individual mandate that the Supreme Court has now ruled is a massive tax. The Congressional Budget Office says roughly 20 million Americans will either have to pay this tax or be forced to buy insurance that they wouldn't have purchased."
