--- title: Obamacare Replacement Adds Penalty for Not Having Insurance description: The GOP's new Obamacare replacement bill isn't entirely getting rid of a punishment for not having health insurance canonical: https://time.com/4692983/obamacare-affordable-care-act-congress-replacement-mandate/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-07T00:51:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T03:41:53.611Z article:section: Politics og:title: Here's How the GOP's Healthcare Bill Deals With Obamacare's Insurance Mandate og:description: The bill dismantles Obamacare's insurance mandate, but adds a new penalty in its place og:url: https://time.com/4692983/obamacare-affordable-care-act-congress-replacement-mandate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2947e7661b968726/6988bd3f4dd2153ed6efe087/paul-ryan-healthcare.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds His Weekly News Conference og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How the GOP's Healthcare Bill Deals With Obamacare's Insurance Mandate twitter:description: The bill dismantles Obamacare's insurance mandate, but adds a new penalty in its place twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2947e7661b968726/6988bd3f4dd2153ed6efe087/paul-ryan-healthcare.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How the GOP's Healthcare Bill Deals With Obamacare's Insurance Mandate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Mar 7, 2017 12:51 AM UTC  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) answers questions at the U.S. Capitol during a press conference March 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) answers questions at the U.S. Capitol during a press conference March 2, 2017 in Washington, DC.Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Mar 7, 2017 12:51 AM UTC The GOP’s new Obamacare replacement bill isn’t entirely getting rid of a punishment for not having health insurance. House Republicans released their plan to [repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act](http://time.com/4692936/obamacare-affordable-care-act-replacement-congress/?xid=homepage) on Monday, which aims to unravel the insurance mandate implemented by President Obama that Americans must obtain and maintain health insurance, or an exemption, or pay a tax penalty. Under the GOP bill, anyone who seeks health insurance after going without coverage for more than 63 days will be required to pay a 30% surcharge on top of their premiums for the year. “This late-enrollment surcharge would be the same for all market entrants, regardless of health status, and discontinued after 12 months, incentivizing enrollees to remain covered,” the text of the bill reads. > [](https://twitter.com/kyledcheney/status/838889110991486977) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4692983/obamacare-affordable-care-act-congress-replacement-mandate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4692983/obamacare-affordable-care-act-congress-replacement-mandate/"},"headline":"Here's How the GOP's Healthcare Bill Deals With Obamacare's Insurance Mandate","datePublished":"2017-03-07T00:51:50.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:41:53.611Z","description":"The bill dismantles Obamacare's insurance mandate, but adds a new penalty in its place","url":"https://time.com/4692983/obamacare-affordable-care-act-congress-replacement-mandate/","keywords":["Congress","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2947e7661b968726/6988bd3f4dd2153ed6efe087/paul-ryan-healthcare.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2947e7661b968726/6988bd3f4dd2153ed6efe087/paul-ryan-healthcare.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds His Weekly News Conference","caption":"House Speaker Paul Ryan Holds His Weekly News Conference","creditText":"Win McNamee—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4692983/obamacare-affordable-care-act-congress-replacement-mandate/","name":"Here's How the GOP's Healthcare Bill Deals With Obamacare's Insurance Mandate"}}]}] ```