AP FACT CHECK: Obamacare Repeal Not Nearly As Easy As GOP Candidates Claim

The irony is the mandate was already so watered down that it wouldn't have done that anyway.

Health insurers were pretty supportive of the health reform bill for the very reasons you describe until about September of 09, when a change in the bill reduced the penalties for the mandate. With low penalties, those customers don't come until they are already sick (just as what happens in Massachusetts) so that's not exactly a win for health insurers.

To make that plan work, the penalties needed to be at least as expensive as the actual cost of the insurance. So the mandate as is will only increase the cost of health insurance.

 

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