Why There’s No Substitute for the Individual Mandate
<p>Republicans seeking to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are finding it difficult to eliminate the individual mandate requiring health insurance while maintaining protections for people with preexisting conditions. In a new post on <em>To the Point</em>, Sherry Glied and Adlan Jackson of the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University explain that the alternatives under consideration won’t keep healthy people in the individual insurance market and would cause some people harm.</p><p>These proposals would replace the individual mandate, which imposes a penalty on people who fail to buy coverage, with provisions that penalize those who don’t maintain continuous coverage when they try to purchase a plan. The authors point out that studies consistently show that people are more likely to respond to immediate and certain consequences than they are to more distant, uncertain ones.</p>
<p>“The proposals won’t persuade young, healthy people to enter, and help to stabilize, the individual market,” the authors say. “And they will leave some unlucky people who held off on buying coverage and got sick to face exorbitant costs.”</p>