--- 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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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=852f128b-9aa8-41af-abc7-41be6cabb2a1&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) 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"}}]}] ```