GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she supports repealing Obamacare's individual mandate — backing from a key moderate swing vote that could bode well for the Senate's tax bill.
In a commentary for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Murkowski argued people should have the freedom to decide if they want insurance or not — and not be fined for deciding against coverage.
"Repealing the individual mandate simply restores to people the freedom to choose," Murkowski wrote. "Nothing else about the structure of the [Affordable Care Act] would be changed."
Murkowski said earlier GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare went too far by restructuring Medicaid and making other changes; the Alaska senator was a key vote against those earlier bills.
In her commentary, she didn't specifically mention the Senate tax bill provision that would repeal the individual mandate, but her support of its repeal suggests she wouldn't object to its inclusion in the legislation.
"People have been forced out of the market by the high cost of insurance, with some often forced to pay a tax because the price of insurance was too high for them to afford," Murkowski wrote.
She said she also supported a bipartisan Obamacare stabilization bill from Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash.
"While I support repealing the individual mandate, I strongly support enacting the bipartisan compromise Alexander/Murray legislation into law as fast as possible to stabilize our markets, provide more control to states and more choices to individuals," she wrote.
Insurers and health policy experts warn the market would be destabilized and premiums would rise without a mandate because fewer healthy people would sign up, leaving the sickest people who need the costliest care, The Hill noted.
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