Senate GOP Wants To Repeal Individual Mandate In Tax Bill

Republicans in Washington were unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act, so they are using their tax bill to get rid of a key provision of the health care law.

Senate Republican leaders want to change their tax bill to include a repeal of the ACA's individual mandate.

"We're optimistic that inserting the individual mandate repeal would be helpful," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday following a meeting with party members.

President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to use the tax bill as a way of repealing the individual mandate, a portion of the ACA that the GOP has opposed from the beginning.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and a member of the finance committee that is drafting the tax bill, said repealing the individual mandate will allow them to further cut taxes for middle-income families.

"It'll be distributed in the form of middle-income tax relief," Thune told the Washington Post. "It will give us even more of an opportunity to really distribute the relief to those middle income cohorts who could really benefit from it."

In addition to abolishing the individual mandate, the updated tax bill also could include a new bipartisan health care agreement recently reached by Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., according to Republican Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Susan Collins. R-Maine.

That Murray-Alexander agreement would fund federal subsidies used to help lower-income Americans afford their health care.

The Congressional Budget Office projected that ending the individual mandate would free up more than $300 billion in government funding over the next decade, but it would also eventually lead to 13 million fewer people having health insurance.

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at Susan.Rupe@innfeedback.com. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.

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Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at susan.rupe@innfeedback.com.