Top medical groups come out against GOP plan to repeal ObamaCare mandate

Top medical groups are voicing their opposition to the decision to include a repeal of ObamaCare’s individual insurance mandate in the Senate version of the GOP tax-reform bill.

“We join together to urge Congress to maintain the individual mandate,” the group, which includes Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, American Hospital Association, and American Academy of Family Physicians, wrote in a letter on Tuesday.

“There will be serious consequences if Congress simply repeals the mandate while leaving the insurance reforms in place: millions more will be uninsured or face higher premiums, challenging their ability to access the care they need,” they wrote.

The letter was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

{mosads}The letter comes after Senate Republicans heeded President Trump’s demand to include the repeal of the mandate in the tax-reform bill. 

While the move could drive centrists in Congress away from supporting the plan, repealing the mandate gives Republicans more money to offset the cost of tax cuts, and would fulfill a the seven-year Republican campaign promise to eliminate a core part of former President Obama’s signature health-care law.

Senate Republicans, as well as the White House, are hoping to achieve their first legislative victory since Trump took office in January. 

Republicans in the upper chamber attracted the ire of the White House and their counterparts in the House when they failed to repeal and replace ObamaCare multiple times earlier this year.