With access to healthcare”.

how insurance works? Obviously the answer is NO. Removing the mandate, plus all the other inane ideas these idiots have put forward only means that premiums are going to increase for all those who have insurance -- either through their employer or privately.

I'm still waiting for those Dems who promote universal health insurance to actually EXPLAIN to those with employer-based insurance that, with everyone paying a little more in federal tax each year, employers won't have to purchase insurance plans, and thus (or at least it's supposed to mean) their paycheques will be bigger. They don't seem to realize that it isn't their employer paying for their insurance, it's actually the employees themselves.

And for those stupid citizens who refuse to purchase insurance and are condemning the mandate, they'd better have a look at some health statistics. Cancer strikes nearly 1 in 2 Americans. Heart disease and stroke are actually the biggest killers. Do those selfish people think a new car is more important than possibly declaring bankruptcy or losing their home (and their car) to pay for outrageous hospital bills?

I'm beginning to think the average IQ of Americans (present company excepted!) is much lower than 100......

pay for the care of these people who refuse to buy insurance when they are no longer able to pay those hospital bills. In other words, free-loading on those who buy insurance.

(I'm not condemning those who don't buy it because they really can't afford it -- note there is an exemption from the penalty if the least expensive health insurance available costs more than 8.13% of your income in premiums. Or if you don't have to file a tax return because your income is too low. Among many other exceptions: https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/health/obamacare-exemptions/ . And I recognize that the damn deductibles and out-of-pocket costs can be too much for many -- costs that the cost sharing reductions in the ACA are meant to help with (for those between 100% and 250% of poverty) but which Trump stopped funding -- though fortunately the law requires that the insurance companies still fund those -- which is why they are raising premiums an extra bunch to make up for the loss of federal funding )

I might also add that Medicare also has penalties for signing up late -- increased premiums for life on both Medicare Part B and Part D for each month you delay buying this insurance. Google: [medicare part b late enrollment penalty]

and similarly for Part D. So penalties aren't just an ACA thing.

They would be eligible for expanded Medicaid and would be waived from the penalty in states that have not expanded it.

Even for a 2 person household the expanded income cutoff is about 22.5k. It is not until you have a 3 person household till you get over 25k (27.5k).

to purchase insurance. They would probably pay more n penalties than if they bought insurance on the marketplace.

Your question as to how it was possible.

and we need to somehow fund it. Killing the mandates (along with GUTTING Medicare) will kill the ACA and we'll pick up about $33B per year off the mandates to hand over to the Walton family,the COX family,the Koch family,the Trump family etc,etc.

The only people who don't want to pay under the ACA subsidies are people who are irresponsible enough to want to pay for something else rather than health insurance. Which is funny as right-wingers claim they work harder and are more responsible.

My big brother makes about 37k a year, after taxes his biweekly check is about 1,100, take 400 out for child support and then 350 out for rent and you have 350 left for utility bills, food and gas for two weeks. He lives in a state that has not expanded medicare. His policy on the ACA is $675 a month and needless to say he cant afford that. Sure, part of this is the Republicans fault for not expanding medicare, maybe it would cover him, I don't know. Im not knocking the ACA, my mom is on it and is being treated for cancer. I am more than happy to pay taxes to have it but there are problems that could stand fixing.