The Hill News

Most Democrats in the House who'd opposed healthcare reform won't vote to repeal it next week, one of those lawmakers said Thursday.

Rep. Jason Altmire (Pa.), a centrist Democrat who'd voted against healthcare reform last year in Congress, said he wouldn't vote for the Republican bill to repeal the law, and said he expected all but a few colleagues to follow suit.

"[T]here's 13 Democrats remaining that voted against the healthcare bill, myself included. I've talked to a lot of them -- I think we all have the same concerns. We think, by and large; it was a bad bill," Altmire said on Fox News. "It did more harm than good. But to repeal it all, including the few provisions that were beneficial, just doesn't make any sense."

The House passed h! ealthcare reform in March in a 219-212 vote. During that vote, 34 Democrats joined Republicans, who had unanimously opposed the bill.

Many of those Democrats who'd opposed the legislation were centrists who went onto defeat in the 2010 elections, leaving the House with only a handful of Democrats remaining who'd originally opposed the legislation.

Those lawmakers will be under pressure from Republican leaders to make the vote to repeal President Obama's signature bill a bipartisan bill. But Democrats, led by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), looking to wage a vigorous defense of the legislation, will be bolstered by hanging onto as many Democratic votes as possible.

Altmire said he worried that some of the positive elemen! ts of the bill, like the prescription drug fix and new regulat! ions req uiring insurers to offer coverage to individuals with preexisting conditions, would be wiped out with other parts of the bill he found distasteful.

He said that most of those Democrats who'd voted against health reform felt the same way.

"There are a few that are announced, but I don't think you're going to get any more than a small handful," he said.

The Democrats who had voted against healthcare reform and remain in Congress are: Altmire, Rep. John Barrow (Ga.), Dan Boren (Okla.), Ben Chandler (Ky.), Tim Holden (Pa.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Dan Lipinski (Ill.), Stephen Lynch (Mass.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Mike Ross (Ark.) and Heath Shuler (N.C.).