Top Trump administration economic officials gave conflicting signals on Sunday about whether the ObamaCare individual mandate provision should be included in a GOP-backed tax reform plan in the Senate.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said while President Trump wants to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act in the tax plan, he would be “Ok” with jettisoning it if “it becomes and impediment.”
“If we can repeal part of ObamaCare as part of a tax bill, and have a tax bill that is still a good tax bill that can pass, that’s great,” Mulvaney said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “If it becomes an impediment to getting the best tax bill we can, then we’re OK with taking it out. So I think it’s up to the Senate and the House to sort of hammer out those details.”
Eliminating the individual mandate, which requires most Americans to pay a fine if they don’t sign up for healthcare insurance, would save the government about $338 billion over the next 10 years but result in 13 million people losing coverage by 2027, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said Trump still backs the repeal and disputed claims that it’s being used as a “bargaining chip” in Senate negotiations.
“This is all about getting this passed in the Senate, that’s the objective. This isn’t a bargaining chip. The president thinks we should get rid of it, I think we should get rid of it — it’s an unfair tax on poor people. To think that you put a penalty on people who can’t afford to buy medical policies is just fundamentally unfair, that’s what this is all about,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The House, which passed its plan last week by a 227-205 margin, doesn’t include a repeal of the individual mandate.
The Senate hopes to vote after Thanksgiving recess on its version, which does.
But the plan faces tough-going in the Upper Chamber, where Republicans hold a 52-48 majority.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) has already come out against the tax plan and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she has concerns over repealing the individual mandate.
On Sunday, Collins said including the repeal provision is “the biggest mistake” in the Senate bill.
“I hope it will be dropped,” she said on ABC’s “This Week.”
But she said she wasn’t ready go on the record against it, because she hopes there will be revisions before it comes to the Senate floor for a vote.
“I haven’t reached that conclusion yet because I think there are going to be further changes,” Collins said.