Allen West tells town hall attendees he agrees with parts of health care reform

Rep. Allen West, R-Fort Lauderdale, told attendees at one of his town halls this week that he agrees with some key provisions in the health care reform law. President Obama’s Affordable Care Act has been one of the rallying forces for the Republican Party, which has been vehemently against the law since it was first discussed.

West is considered one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House. He is known for his vicious attacks on the Democratic Party and has become a firebrand for the right. But West gave an uncharacteristically nuanced opinion of the health care law, which the right has aggressively attacked.

The Huffington Post pointed this out today:

TCPalm.com, a Florida news site, reported that West tore into Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act, during a Wednesday night town hall meeting in Port St. Lucie. West, like all other House Republicans, voted to repeal the entire law in early 2011.

But during the constituent event, West also conceded that he agrees with parts of the law that one often hears only Democrats singling out for praise: the provision that allows young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until the age of 26, and the provision that prevents insurance plans from discriminating against people with preexisting conditions.

“The things I just outlined could probably fit in about 10 to 15 pages,” West said at the event, according to TCPalm.com. “It’s the other 2,680 pages of the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act that will be detrimental to the United States.”

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments in the Florida-led challenge to the law. Florida lawmakers are asking the Supreme Court to strike down the entire law — including the provisions West said he approved. An announcement of the court’s decision, though, will not come for another few months.