Press Releases • Dec 2017 • Health Care Reform - Obamacare

Senate Passes Tax Bill and Repeals Obamacare Individual Mandate

For Immediate Release
December 4, 2017

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom’s Twila Brase: Affordable Care Act Still Needs to be Repealed in Its Entirety

ST. PAUL, Minn.—After the U.S. Senate passed the historic tax bill early Saturday morning and addressed the Affordable Care Act individual mandate, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, www.cchfreedom.org) president and co-founder Twila Brase released the following statement.

“We applaud the Senate for taking action to eliminate the Affordable Care Act penalty on people who cannot afford private insurance or do not want public coverage,” Brase remarked. “That said, Americans need to understand three things. First, neither the individual mandate nor the penalty language is repealed in the Senate bill. They would remain in law. Second, the penalty on individuals is simply zeroed out, allowing another Congress to easily restore the penalty to the same level or even higher. Third, the Senate bill does not zero out the penalty until January 1, 2019.

“Thus, if the bill becomes law, individuals will still be on the hook for the penalty for coverage decisions made in 2017 and 2018,” she added. “Furthermore, mid-term elections could put this Congress’s elimination of the penalty at risk when a new Congress goes into session at the start of 2019.

“Finally, it is insufficient to zero out the individual penalty,” Brase concluded. “This one action will not restore health freedom. Even if the House agrees to zero out the penalty, most of the Affordable Care Act would remain in law, including the less well-known federal payment controls on the practice of medicine, and still needs to be repealed in its entirety.”

For more information about CCHF, visit www.cchfreedom.org, its Facebook page or its Twitter feed @CCHFreedom. View the media page for CCHF here. For more on CCHF’s The Wedge of Health Freedom, visit www.JointheWedge.com, The Wedge Facebook page or The Wedge on Twitter @wedgeoffreedom.