Republicans complained about the individual mandate in the ACA for seven years, but on Monday, they are going to put a provision in their bill requiring people to buy their crappy no coverage health insurance. The problem is that adding a requirement for coverage would violate the reconciliation rules and for the bill to need 60 votes to pass.
Vox reported, “But the six-month waiting period could also complicate the Senate Republicans’ repeal efforts, because it may run afoul of the chamber’s complex reconciliation rules. Republicans are using what’s called “budget reconciliation” to pass their health care bill with a bare majority of 50 votes and avoid a Democratic filibuster. But the rules governing reconciliation restrict what policies the GOP can include in their bill — the waiting period is one of the provisions thought to be in doubt.”
The reason why Republicans are now adding the individual mandate is that insurance companies didn’t like their plan to allow people to not have insurance. Insurers warned that allowing people to drop their health coverage would destabilize the market because healthy people would buy insurance only when they needed it.
By writing their bill in such a half-baked and slapdashed fashion, Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, might have killed their own bill. Republicans are left with the choice either passing a bill that will destabilize the insurance markets, or kill their own bill by making changes that will violate reconciliation.
If the bill requires 60 votes to pass, it will die in humiliating fashion on the Senate floor.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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