COVERAGE: Myths About the Individual Mandate: Affordability

Myth: An individual mandate would force families to forgo other necessities in order to buy health insurance.

Fact: All existing mandate-centered reform plans include subsidies for low-income people to ensure affordability, and insurance reforms to make health insurance markets work for all Americans.

• To date, no policymaker has proposed instituting an individual mandate without addressing affordability, standards and market reforms that protect consumers.
• Reform plans that include an individual mandate—such as the Healthy Americans Act sponsored by Senators Wyden, Bennett, and a dozen other cosponsors and that of Representatives Langevin and Shays—also include subsidies that reach as high as 400% of the Federal Poverty Level or $84,000 for a family of four.
• John Holahan and Linda Blumberg of the Urban Institute recently noted that under a mandate with generous subsidies "low-income individuals spend less as a percentage of income than higher income individuals."
• In a post on the Health Affairs Blog, Patricia Lynch explained why such desirable and popular insurance market reforms as guaranteed issue (not being able to deny people health insurance) would not be possible without an individual mandate to bring everyone into the system.

Check back tomorrow when we'll examine common myths about enforcing mandates.  For more in depth discussion, read New America's recent issue brief.