Republicans Killed the Obamacare Mandate. New Data Shows It Didn’t Really Matter. - The New York Times

Many experts now view the individual mandate as a policy that did little to increase health coverage — but did a lot to invite political backlash. By Sarah Kliff Health economists long had a favorite metaphor for explaining why Obamacare’s unpopular individual mandate was good policy: the three-legged stool. Obamacare would work, they’d explain, only if it did three things: stop denying people insurance coverage (or raising premiums) if they have pre-existing conditions; subsidize coverage; and require everyone to sign up. Take away one of those legs, and it would topple over. But Congress did ultimately chop off a leg when the mandate penalties were eliminated as part of the 2017 tax bill — and, despite these predictions, the Affordable Care Act still stands. New federal data and economic research show the law hasn’t collapsed or entered the “death spiral” that economists and health insurers projected. Many experts now view the individual mandate as a policy that did little to increas

Many experts now view the individual mandate as a policy that did little to increase health coverage — but did a lot to invite political backlash. By Sarah Kliff Health economists long had a favorite metaphor for explaining why Obamacare’s unpopular individual mandate was good policy: the three-legged stool. Obamacare would work, they’d explain, only if it did three things: stop denying people insurance coverage (or raising premiums) if they have pre-existing conditions; subsidize coverage; and require everyone to sign up. Take away one of those legs, and it would topple over. But Congress did