For most of 2017, the policy debate in Washington centered on Republican proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). After much drama, Congress failed to enact a health bill. Nonetheless, it succeeded in effectively repealing one provision, the individual mandate, in the new tax law. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the number of uninsured Americans will increase by 13 million and individual market premiums will rise 10 percent as a result. The repeal of the individual mandate comes after a number of other actions by the Trump administration that limit consumer protections and opportunities for enrollment and increase premiums for middle-class consumers.
The above excerpt was originally published in Health Affairs.
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