GOP bill would repeal health law's individual mandate

Republican senators introduced a bill Tuesday to repeal the unpopular individual mandate in President Obama's signature healthcare law.

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) introduced the measure, dubbing it the "American Liberty Restoration Act." They said the mandate is an assault on constitutionally protected freedoms — despite the Supreme Court's ruling last year that upheld the mandate as constitutional.

"This legislation we are introducing today is simple: it strikes the individual mandate, so we can instead find ways of providing people with health care, but in a manner that doesn’t run counter to our constitutional framework of limited government," Hatch said in a statement.

The individual mandate requires most taxpayers to either purchase insurance or pay a penalty. There are exceptions for people who are too poor to buy coverage or for whom insurance would be too expensive (defined as costing more than 8 percent of annual income).

“Congress should repeal the law, especially the individual mandate, and then proceed step by step to reduce the cost of health care so more Americans can afford to buy insurance," Alexander said.

Hatch and Alexander's bill is unlikely to go anywhere.

The Supreme Court represented conservatives' best chance to get rid of the mandate, and the prospect of legislative repeal was taken fully off the table once President Obama won a second term and Democrats expanded their majority in the Senate.

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