Pro-Obamacare group slams Susan Collins for tax reform support

The national ad calls on Collins’ constituents to call her and demand she work to remove a repeal of Obamacare’s individual mandate from the tax bill. Collins announced she would support the legislation Friday after receiving a commitment from GOP leadership for two Obamacare stabilization bills aimed at negating the effects of repealing the mandate’s penalties, including expected increases in insurance premiums.

“Collins has previously said she is opposed to any tax bill that rips away healthcare coverage for millions of Americans and has voted against several attempts to repeal healthcare,” the Obamacare group said Friday.

Collins has said she opposed adding the repeal to the tax legislation. However, she came around after securing a commitment from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and President Trump to support two bills to blunt any increase in premiums.

She previously told the Washington Examiner that she does not support the mandate because it primarily affects middle- to low-income Americans.

She also secured other concessions such as an expansion of the medical expense deduction.

It is not clear if the stabilization bills would mitigate a 10 percent per-year increase in premiums that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would occur if the individual mandate were repealed. The mandate requires that everyone buy health insurance or pay a penalty, and advocates and insurers say that repealing it would take away a key incentive for young people to sign up.

The CBO also estimated that 13 million people would go without insurance over the next decade if the mandate were repealed. However, the budget office has said it is looking at its insurance coverage methodology in relation to the mandate.

Another estimate from financial firm Standard & Poor’s found only three to five million people would go without coverage.