Gov. Newsom proposing individual mandate to shore up Obamacare in California

by DCG

In December 2017 the individual mandate under Obamacare was repealed via President Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Yet residents in California may be forced to again pay a fine if they don’t have health insurance – if Gov. Newsom has his way. He hopes the fine will generate money to subsidize insurance for people (wonder if that includes illegal aliens?).

As reported by Sacramento Bee:

“As the Democrats who run California government hash out the final details of the state budget, some lawmakers and advocates are raising doubts about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to shore up Obamacare with a tax penalty on people who don’t buy insurance.

Newsom’s office argues fining people without insurance, a plan known as the individual mandate, will stabilize the state’s health insurance market and generate money to subsidize insurance for middle-income people. But others say the money it will generate isn’t enough to make health insurance truly affordable, as the governor’s office is planning.

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The individual mandate would have affordability exemptions for people who are in the lowest income brackets, but “for some, it’s just not enough, especially in our high cost of living state,” he said.

Newsom proposed reinstating the individual mandate, a key part of the federal health care law that Republicans controlling the federal government have rolled back, to pressure healthy people to buy coverageInsurance markets rely on those healthy people paying into the system to offset losses from others who require expensive care.

Republicans who voted to roll back the mandate in 2017 argued it was unfair to penalize people who chose not to buy insurance. But without a mandate, Newsom says insurance prices will go up for everyone.

“Without a mandate, you will see an increase in your premiums,” Newsom said during a news conference about his budget plan last month. “I’d like to avoid that.”

Read the whole story here.

DCG

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