Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Lamar Alexander (R-Tn.) on Wednesday introduced legislation, the American Liberty Restoration Act, repealing the individual insurance mandate that is a central tenet of the President’s health care law. This legislation garnered the support of 30 senators in the 112th Congress.
“The $2.6 trillion health law is driving up health care costs, increasing taxes on families, stifling job creation, and reducing the quality of patient care,” said Senator Hatch. “What’s more, it for the first time in our nation’s history requires every American to purchase insurance even if they don’t want it. 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.”
“This health care law is an historic mistake that expands a health-care system we already can’t afford, drives up individual premiums, and then taxes Americans to pay for it,” Senator Alexander said. “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.”
The American Liberty Restoration Act would strike provisions in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) requiring individuals to purchase health insurance. Officials said, "Never before has the federal government forced the American people to purchase something they may not want." The individual insurance mandate in PPACA comes into effect in 2014.