The US House of Representatives failed [official summary] Tuesday to garner enough votes to override the president’s veto of the Restoring Americans’ Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015 [HR 3762, PDF], the most recent legislative effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) [official website] and defund Planned Parenthood [advocacy website]. Congress passed [JURIST report] HR 3762 in January to “clear the way for genuine, compassionate, patient-centered health care reform.” The house needed a two-thirds majority to override the veto, but failed [official vote] by a vote of 241-186. This was the 64th time Congress has attempted to repeal the ACA.

The ACA [JURIST backgrounder] has generated significant legal controversy [JURIST backgrounder] since its passage in 2010. The National Conference of State Legislatures [official website] reports that between 2010 and 2015, at least 21 states enacted laws attempting to challenge or completely opt out of mandatory provisions of the ACA. Most recently the act was amended by the Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees Act [text], which allows states to consider employers with 51 to 100 employees as large employers, removing certain restrictions on small employers from those in this category. In June the Supreme Court ruled [JURIST report] in King v. Burwell [SCOTUSblog materials] that tax credits available to those who buy health insurance through state exchanges are also available to those who buy it through the federal exchange.