WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Wednesday that President Barack Obama would veto a Republican-backed bill that would reduce the number of people who qualify for employer-based health insurance under his signature Affordable Care Act.
The bill, introduced on Tuesday in the U.S. House of Representatives, aims to require companies to offer healthcare coverage to employees who work 40 hours per week, instead of the 30-hour threshold under the reforms known as Obamacare.
Republicans argue that Obamacare has caused employers to cut worker hours in order to avoid offering health coverage. Their plan to move back to the 40-hour week standard for health benefits was endorsed by the National Retail Federation on Wednesday.
But the White House argued that the Republican bill would weaken provisions designed to maintain employer-based health insurance coverage. The bill "would shift costs to taxpayers, put workers' hours at risk, and disrupt health insurance coverage," the White House said in a statement.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated in July that a shift back to the 40-hour standard would increase the federal deficit by $45.7 billion from 2015 to 2024 and reduce the number of people receiving employer-based benefits while increasing the number of uninsured Americans.
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Representative Paul Ryan, the new House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, said the current 30-hour standard is depriving part-time workers of income.
"There is bipartisan recognition that Obamacare will reduce take-home pay but the president is showing once again that protecting his law is a higher priority than protecting these workers' wages," Buck said in a statement.
The measure is one of several that Republicans, who now control both chambers of Congress, are planning to pass early this year to chip away at Obama's healthcare law.
There is support within the party for legislation to repeal an excise tax on medical devices such as artificial joints that helps pay for Obamacare insurance subsidies.