Trump tax bill keeps the individual mandate

The Trump tax bill–potentially known as the “the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act“– includes provisions such as increasing the standard deduction and reducing the number of tax brackets from 7 to 4.  Additionally, a number of deductions are removed–such as capping local and state property tax deductions at $10,000 and only allowing mortgage interest deductions for loans under $500,000–to finance the larger standard deduction and increase the child tax credit to $1,600.

One item that was not removed was the tax penalty for individuals who do not buy insurance.  The Hill reports on the decision not to eliminate the individual mandate:

The tax reform bill to be released Thursday will not include a repeal of ObamaCare’s individual mandate, sources say, despite President Trump proposing the idea on Wednesday.

Repealing the mandate would introduce a whole new area of controversy into the bill, and many Republicans think tax reform is hard enough without adding in health care…

Repealing the mandate would save around $400 billion, which could be used to help pay for tax cuts, but the Congressional Budget Office also says 15 million more people would be uninsured and premiums would rise 20 percent.

Your tax rate may change, but you’ll still need to buy insurance.

 

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