Freedom to choose! Alaska’s Sen. Murkowski Says She Supports Repealing Obamacare Individual Mandate
Senate Republican tax bill includes provision to repeal mandate
Sen. Lisa Murkowski / Getty Images
BY:Â
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Ala.)Â wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday that she supports Republican efforts to repeal Obamacare’s individual mandate.
“I have always supported the freedom to choose. I believe that the federal government should not force anyone to buy something they do not wish to buy in order to avoid being taxed,” Murkowski wrote in her piece for the Daily News-Miner, an Alaska newspaper. “That is the fundamental reason why I opposed the Affordable Care Act from its inception and also why I cosponsored a bill to repeal the individual mandate tax penalty starting as early as 2013. And that is why I support the repeal of that tax today.”
Murkowski’s announcement comes as a welcome surprise to Senate Republicans, whose current tax reform bill repeals the individual mandate, which forces most Americans who do not have health insurance to pay a fine. Earlier this year, Murkowski was one of three Republican senators who did not vote for the Senate GOP’s so-called “skinny” repeal of Obamacare.
