Senate Republicans to Add ACA Mandate Fight to Tax Fight

Republicans have been talking about the possibility of adding an individual mandate repeal provision to the ACA for weeks. President Donald Trump tweeted a request for Congress to ACA mandate repeal to the tax bill on Monday.

Wyden argued at the markup that adding an individual mandate repeal provision to the tax bill is a major change to the bill.

“This is now a major health care bill,” Wyden said.

Wyden said Hatch should at least give committee members 24 hours to propose health care amendments to the tax bill.

“I apologize to every member of the committee,” Hatch said of the timing. “But this is the way it is.”

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said Democrats can propose health-related amendments, even without an extra health amendment filing extension, by changing the text of amendments they have already submitted.

The Senate tax bill includes major life insurance tax provisions. Committee members did not focus on those provisions today, and it’s not clear whether the new modification would affect the life provisions.

The Mandate Fight

Some players in health insurance have argued that the current individual mandate is so lightly enforced that it has no real effect and is not worth trying to save.

America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association are part of a coalition that’s fighting to save the mandate. Those groups teamed up with the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the Federation of American to Hospitals to write a joint letter asking congressional leaders to keep the mandate in place.

“If Congress simply repeals the mandate while leaving the insurance reforms in place, millions more will be uninsured or face higher premiums, challenging their ability to access the care they need,” the groups write in the letter.

Alexander Minicozzi, an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office, that, if the individual mandate has been working, it’s possible that some of the benefits of the mandate could remain, even if the current legal requirement goes away.

It’s possible, for example, that what consumers have learned about health benefits and enrollment as a result of the Affordable Care Act, and the individual mandate, would continue to push up overall enrollment levels even if Congress repealed the mandate, Minicozzi suggests in a new presentation slidedeck. 

—Read Scott Kicks Off Battle Over Senate Tax Bill Life Provisions on ThinkAdvisor.

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