Senators Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Pat Toomey (R., Penn.) have introduced the Mandate Relief Act of 2017 to relieve Americans of paying Obamacare's mandate, which is a penalty or tax for not purchasing health insurance.
A majority of households that pay the Obamacare penalty are low- and middle-income and roughly 80 percent earn less than $50,000. The bill would exempt Americans who earn less than the national median household income from paying the penalty. Others who would be exempt are those living in a county with only one insurer participating on the exchanges, and if they live in a state where premiums have increased by 10 percent or more year after year.
"Imposing the individual mandate opened a Pandora's box of unintended consequences," said Sen. Cotton. "Instead of stabilizing the insurance markets, it forced hardworking families to get by with even less."
"This bill will give them the relief they deserve by exempting working-class Americans from this cruel, unjust tax," he said.
"Obamacare resulted in skyrocketing premiums, higher deductibles, and fewer affordable choices in insurance," said Sen. Toomey. "Worst of all, if an individual or family cannot afford Obamacare's overpriced plans, they are punished financially by their own government with the individual mandate tax."
"Of the one-quarter million Pennsylvanians who are forced to pay this punitive tax, over 80 percent earn less than $50,000," he said. "It's time to grant these families relief from Obamacare's failures."