By Roxana Tiron and James Rowley - 2012-07-11T04:01:00Z

U.S. House Republicans, united in opposition to President Barack Obamas health care overhaul, used to pledge to repeal and replace it.

Now, as they prepare to vote as soon as today to kill the law they call Obamacare -- their 33rd effort to undo all or parts of it -- Republican leaders have dropped the word replace from their promise.

The omission is the result of an election-year calculation: They figure they stand to gain from public distaste for the 2010 measures central provision, the requirement that most Americans buy health insurance, and will lose if they start providing details about what they would do instead.

They dont care to replace it, Ross Baker, a professor of American politics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, said in a telephone interview. They want to revert to the status quo. Whatever plan they have is going to end up alienating somebody, especially during a presidential campaign.

Renewing the debate over how to provide wider coverage while containing health costs would divert attention from the stagnant economy, which Republicans say is their winning issue. Also, it runs the risk of emphasizing a patchwork of Republican proposals that wouldnt provide universal protection or retain such popular features of the 2010 law as requiring insurance policies to cover pre-existing conditions.

The best legislative approach is step by step while going after the problems that we can solve, Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said in an interview. House Republicans havent scheduled further votes or hearings on health care proposals.

Achieving universal coverage is going to be very difficult, Cole said. Even so, you do it more through incentives than you do through penalties and this bill is full of penalties and not incentives.

The House wont pursue legislation before the November election because the big thing is going to be the election, Representative Wally Herger, a California Republican who leads the health subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview. Everybody is looking to the election, everything is second fiddle to November.

Unless Republicans win the presidency and control the Senate majority next session, their attempts to repeal the law will go no further than the House.

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Repealing, Not Replacing, Health Law Tops Republican Plan