Just one day after the Supreme Court announced its ruling on the health care law, 120 House Republicans have proposed legislation to eliminate the mandate to purchase insurance.
The Healthcare Tax Relief and Mandate Repeal Act (H.R. 6048) is sponsored by Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH) and has 119 co-sponsors.
The legislation would repeal the individual health insurance mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance, and also repeals the employer health insurance mandate. If enacted, it would take effect at the start of 2014.
Turner called the mandate a tax since that is how the court justified keeping it in place. The Supreme Court said the government had no right to require the purchase of health insurance under the Commerce Clause, but said the mandate and its penalties could stand as a tax on people who choose not to buy health insurance.
In a statement, Turner said, “This tax will have tremendous consequences on individuals, working families, businesses, and local governments. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the individual mandate alone will result in $4 billion in increased taxes a year on Americans by 2017. While Ohio families are still struggling under this economy, the President aims to place additional tax burdens on them that they simply cannot meet.”
The House has scheduled a vote in early July to repeal the healthcare law.
