The pro-Obamacare group Save my Care is slamming Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, for supporting the overhaul of the tax code in a new round of digital ads.
The ads attack Collins and Murkowski for voting in favor of the Republican tax bill that passed shortly after midnight on Wednesday would zero out penalties for Obamacare’s individual mandate, which obligates people to buy health insurance or pay a fine. In a release, Save My Care accused the senators of voting for “sneaky repeal” of Obamacare and urge them to resist further efforts to unravel the law.
“She could’ve stood up for healthcare, but she decided it was more important to stand with Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and corporate lobbyists,” each of the ads say.
The tax bill is headed to the House for another vote on Wednesday, and lawmakers expect President Trump to sign it soon, although his signature might come in early January.
A Congressional Budget Office projection shows 13 million more people will be uninsured without Obamacare’s individual mandate, but the nonpartisan agency is re-evaluating the way it carries out its projections on this particular provision. A Standard & Poor’s analysis projected 5 million or fewer people would be uninsured without the mandate. Insurers have said without a replacement, like a waiting period, they would exit the exchanges or hike the price of premiums.
This summer, Collins and Murkowski both voted against a bill that would have narrowly repealed Obamacare, along with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and all Senate Democrats, which led to the bill’s failure. That legislation contained a provision that would have repealed the individual mandate and additional details would have been negotiated during conference with the House.
Collins supported the tax bill, which included repeal of the mandate, and negotiated a guarantee from Senate leadership that two bills would come to the floor that will help fund Obamacare. One of the bills would trigger reinsurance to lower the costs of premiums for enrollees, and the other would fund cost-sharing reduction subsidies. Save My Care said in a release that these bills would not undo the damage of canceling out the individual mandate, and studies have made various projections about what the effect would be.
Related: Susan Collins accuses media of being sexist in coverage of tax bill
