Final federal tax bill likely to eliminate ACA individual mandate, GOP says

House and Senate negotiators working on a reconciliation tax bill are likely to maintain language eliminating the insurance coverage mandate at the heart of the Affordable Care Act, officials say (Source: “Tax Bill Is Likely to Undo Health Insurance Mandate, Republicans Say,” New York Times, Dec. 6, 2017)

But a deal struck by Senate Republican leaders and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine to mitigate the effect of the repeal has been all but rejected by House Republicans, potentially jeopardizing Ms. Collins’s final yes vote.

The sweeping tax overhaul approved Saturday by the Senate would eliminate penalties for people who go without insurance, a change not in the tax bill passed last month by the House. But the House has voted many times to roll back the mandate, most recently in a bill to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and House members were enthusiastic about going along.

Without a mandate, some healthy people are likely to go without coverage, leaving sicker people in the market, and prices are likely to rise more than they otherwise would. The Congressional Budget Office said last month that repealing the individual mandate would increase average premiums on the individual market about 10 percent, and it estimated that the number of people without health insurance would rise by 13 million.