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The individual and employer mandates under the Trump administration, 2017-2020
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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, established individual and employer mandates, which required most Americans to obtain and maintain health insurance and most employers to offer it. The mandates are enforced by tax penalties and were established over a period of years in order to achieve the goal of expanded coverage.[1]
The American Health Care Act of 2017 was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 6, 2017, and proposed repealing the ACA's tax penalties on individuals for not maintaining health coverage and on employers for not offering coverage. However, under the bill, individuals would still have to enroll in and maintain continuous coverage; if they did not, insurers would be required to penalize them by increasing their monthly premiums by 30 percent for one year once they did enroll.[2]
Trump administration officials on insurance mandates under the ACA
Donald Trump
- On January 20, 2017, Trump issued an executive order that gave broad authority to the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the heads of other executive offices and governmental departments, "to waive, defer, grant exemptions from, or delay the implementation of any provision or requirement of the Act that would impose a fiscal burden on any State or a cost, fee, tax, penalty, or regulatory burden on individuals, families, healthcare providers, health insurers, patients, recipients of healthcare services, purchasers of health insurance, or makers of medical devices, products, or medications." However, no specific action was directed as a result of the order.[3]
- During an interview on January 23, 2017, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway if the president would stop enforcing the individual mandate. Conway said, "Well, when president — what President Trump is doing is, he wants to get rid of that Obamacare penalty almost immediately, because that is something that is really strangling a lot of Americans to have to pay a penalty for not buying…" Stephanopoulos then asked, "So, he'll stop enforcing that mandate?" Conway said, "He may."[4]
Mike Pence
- During a speech on March 11, 2017, Pence said, “The way to lower the price of health insurance is to create a national marketplace and give Americans more choices to buy the insurance they want, not the insurance that the government mandates them to have."[5]
- During a speech on November 1, 2016, Pence said, "In 2009 and 2010, I was Chairman of the House Republican Conference, leading the fight with my fellow Republicans against Obamacare. I said then, and it has proven true, that when you mandate every American have a government-approved insurance whether they want it or need it, and when you create a government-run plan paid for with job-killing tax increases, that’s a government takeover of health care. And that’s the reason that not a single House or Senate Republican voted for Obamacare. ... Obamacare’s employer mandates and new taxes have been destructive to the economy by killing jobs and reducing wages and growth. Obamacare imposed more than $1 trillion in new taxes on providers, taxpayers and businesses to pay for its failed policies. It has reduced pay for workers in small businesses and reduced employment by more than 350,000 jobs nationwide. Obamacare’s employer mandate raised the minimum cost of hiring a full-time worker to $10.30/hour for larger employers, without increasing take-home pay for workers. State and local officials have conceded that Obamacare forced municipal governments to cut hours of part-time employees. ... A Trump plan will make health care affordable and will put people back in the driver’s seat of their health care, not the government. We will get rid of the individual mandate, because the government shouldn’t tell you how to spend your money."[6]
See also
- 115th Congress on healthcare, 2017-2018
- Federal policy on healthcare, 2017-2020
- 115th Congress on the American Health Care Act of 2017
- American Health Care Act of 2017
- Alternative proposals to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
- Obamacare overview
- Restoring Americans' Healthcare Freedom Reconciliation Act of 2015
Footnotes
- ↑ Kaiser Family Foundation, "Summary of the Affordable Care Act," April 25, 2013
- ↑ House Energy and Commerce Committee, "Budget Reconciliation Legislative Recommendations Relating to Repeal and Replace of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," accessed March 7, 2017
- ↑ The White House, Executive Order Minimizing the Economic Burden of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Pending Repeal," January 20, 2017
- ↑ Vox.com, "Trump may stop enforcing the individual mandate, a hugely damaging move for Obamacare," accessed March 23, 2017
- ↑ Breitbart, "Mike Pence: ‘We Need Every Republican in Congress,’ Every American for Healthcare ‘Battle’," accessed March 23, 2017
- ↑ Breitbart, "Gov. Mike Pence Details Plan to Repeal and Replace ObamaCare," accessed March 23, 2017
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