The Ramifications of Repealing the Individual Mandate

Many legislative proposals to modify the ACA would eliminate the “individual mandate,” which requires that most Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty. In an analysis for The Commonwealth Fund Blog, Evan Saltzman and Christine Eibner of the RAND Corporation find that repealing the requirement would result in 12.3 million people losing insurance by 2017 and an 8 percent increase in premiums in the individual market, where people buy their own coverage.