Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she supports the latest GOP effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate in an opinion piece for an Alaskan newspaper published Tuesday.
“Repealing the individual mandate simply restores to people the freedom to choose,” Murkowski wrote in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The individual mandate requires everyone to have health insurance or otherwise face a penalty.
But Murkowski added while she was behind a repeal of the mandate, she strongly supported “enacting the bipartisan compromise Alexander/Murray legislation into law as fast as possible to stabilize our markets, provide more control to states and more choices to individuals.”
The deal put forth by Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., would restore payments to ACA insurers for two years in exchange for giving states more flexibility to waive Obamacare insurer regulations.
Murkowski’s endorsement comes after she was a crucial “no” vote on her party’s Obamacare repeal effort over the summer.
It is also important ahead of the Senate Republican’s tax plan being considered on the upper chamber’s floor, as the bill contains a mandate repeal measure.
A spokesperson for Murkowski cautioned against assuming the senator was in favor of the tax proposal.
“Sen. Murkowski said on Friday that she will be reviewing the work of the Finance Committee over the Thanksgiving holiday and plans to look at the entire package before coming to any conclusion on the legislation,” the spokesperson told Politico.
