During a recent vice presidential debate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) defended the Obamacare individual mandate, arguing that insurance plans would “collapse” without a penalty for Americans who choose not to buy health coverage. However, this claim is false. The Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate was effectively repealed under former President Donald Trump in 2017, and the lack of an individual mandate has not caused any market collapse over the past seven years.
Walz claimed that, without the Obamacare individual mandate, the Obamacare marketplace would collapse. This assertion contradicts the reality that it has been more than seven years since Republicans repealed the individual mandate, and the marketplace still functions. Additionally, this stance appears to go against Senator Kamala Harris’s pledge not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $400,000 per year.
Breitbart News’s John Nolte noted that the Obamacare mandate disproportionately affected middle-class Americans with its tax of $675 for not purchasing health insurance. According to Forbes, 6.67 million families are subject to the Obamacare mandate, with the majority (80%) making less than $50,000 per year. Almost all of these families (6.6 million out of 6.67 million) earn less than $200,000 annually. The average tax paid by those making less than $50,000 was $340.