Harrisburg Patriot News: “Health care repeal: GOP opted for drama rather than tweaks.” The vote in the House of Representatives to repeal the Affordable Care Act might have been good theater, but it wasn’t good policy. As a line in the repeal bill states, the intent is to make it “as if such Act had not been enacted.” Let’s review what that world before reform looked like: “Pre-existing conditions.” A substantial number of Americans are unable to get health care coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Even though they want to buy coverage, they are turned away or given extreme premiums that a middle-class family could not afford. Everyone pays for the uninsured. Those without health insurance don’t have access to basic care. Instead, they tend to go to the emergency room for all of their health needs. This is hugely expensive, inefficient and taxpayers pick up the tab.  Not traditionally employed? Good luck. College students and recent graduates struggling to find a job in the downturn can’t get health insurance. Nor can many entrepreneurs and small-business owners striking out on their own. Some nearing retirement also opt to stay in the workforce until they hit Medicare age solely because of health care insurance concerns. That eats up jobs for everyone else… Congressional Republicans’ time would be better spent improving the law instead of wasting energy on the repeal, which everyone knows won’t pass in the Senate. LINK

York Dispatch “EDITORIAL: Pointless, divisive health care vote”: Republicans are expected to make good on their campaign promise by attempting to repeal the historic health care reform bill that expanded coverage to millions of Americans and added benefits for many, including young adults and seniors. It’s a symbolic vote, because even if it clears the House as expected, it has little or no chance of winning approval in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and even if it did it wouldn’t survive a presidential veto. Just as well, considering a new poll shows only one in four people now support a repeal, a move the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says would add $230 billion to the federal deficit by 2021. LINK

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “Bitter bill: The GOP’s health care repeal vote was all drama”: To the victors go the spoiling. Having won back control of the U.S. House of Representatives with complaints about overreaching government exemplified by the so-called Obamacare law, Republicans rose up united last Wednesday to strangle universal health care in its infancy. But it was all political theater because the Democrats have the votes in the Senate and President Barack Obama would veto the bill if it passed both chambers. For theater of any sort, it is the audience that rates the performance — and Americans have shown themselves to be fickle. LINK

Scranton-Times Tribune “Finish plan for health law”:By voting this week to repeal the new health care law without proposing an alternative, House Republicans engaged more in political theater than lawmaking. The guaranteed failure of the repeal bill does have significant policy implications for every state, however. Although the health care law establishes national policy, it leaves a great deal of implementation up to the states, which are the primary regulators of health insurance.