Republicans Just Can’t Quit Obamacare Repeal

The Senate GOP has added a repeal of the individual mandate to its plan to cut taxes for the rich.

Bill Clark/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Senate Republicans decided on Tuesday to turn their tax bill into a health care bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced that Republicans plan to include a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate in the Senate’s tax cut bill. If Republicans succeed in overturning the mandate, 13 million more people would lack health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Republicans are planning to use a procedure known as reconciliation to pass their tax bill, which will allow them to get a bill out of the Senate with a simple majority vote rather than needing the usual 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. The rules of reconciliation prevent Republicans from actually taking the individual mandate off the books, so instead they intend to reduce the fine for people who don’t buy insurance down to zero.

Republicans are incorporating a repeal of the individual mandate into their tax bill for one reason: It saves money. The GOP needs to find ways to reduce the amount that the bill will add to the federal deficit, which is currently projected to be $1.49 trillion over the next decade. But repealing the mandate saves money only because far fewer people will have health insurance. The amount of money saved correlates directly to the number of people who forgo insurance, since fewer people would be taking advantage of the government’s premium subsidies and getting coverage through Medicaid.

While not as far-reaching as the health care bills Republicans considered earlier in the year, this new plan would be a massive shock to the country’s health insurance system. The CBO recently estimated that ending the individual mandate’s financial penalties would save the government $338 billion over the next 10 years. But an extra 4 million people would lack insurance in 2019, rising to 13 million by 2027. And insurance would be more expensive for the people who stick around to buy it on Obamacare’s exchanges, with premiums going up about 10 percent, according to the CBO. 

Still, the cost savings would help one group of Americans. Fifty percent of the benefits from the proposed tax cuts in the bill would go to the top 5 percent of earners in 2027.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate