Repealing the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate has the potential to reduce the deficit by a titanic $338 billion in the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
A recent Taxpayer Advocate Service report found out that roughly a staggering 4 million Americans paid an average penalty of about $708 this year for a total of $2.8 billion.
“We’re seeing with the CBO report that repealing the mandate would reduce the deficit by nearly $340 billion over 10 years,” said Sally Pipes, the president of the Pacific Research Institute. “The report estimates that by 2027, about 13 million fewer Americans would enroll in ACA-compliant plans.”
“What’s great news is that if the mandate were repealed, most markets would remain stable,” she further said. “That’s significant for the millions of Americans who would become free to purchase other health care plans that are better fits for them and their families.”
The budget office also goes on to project that premiums would be increasing by about 10 percent over the next decade but says this is due to the healthier individuals choosing not to purchase the health insurance.
“The individual mandate is one of the most unpopular Obamacare-era regulations—and it’s largely been a failure,” Pipes said in his report. “Not as many Americans are insured in the Obamacare insurance exchanges as originally projected, and premiums have skyrocketed since 2013.”
Pipes also says that it is disappointing that neither the Senate nor the House has included this mandate repeal in the most recent versions of their tax reform bills.
“However, it could—and should—be added to future versions,” she had said. “I’m hopeful that the CBO’s report will help accelerate the process of getting rid of the mandate. It could also be done either through Sens. Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey’s Mandate Relief Act, or an executive order from the president. With that said, I don’t think it can be fully repealed through an executive order.”