--- title: Obamacare Repeal: Read the Senate’s ‘Skinny’ Bill in Full description: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a slimmed-down health care bill aimed at keeping Republican ambitions alive canonical: https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/ author: Ryan Kilpatrick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-28T04:28:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:25:56.474Z article:section: Politics og:title: Read the Senate’s ‘Skinny’ Obamacare Repeal Bill in Full og:description: It's officially called the Health Care Freedom Act og:url: https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eb8a5b2f9208b7c/6988d780656a3fcc3ebd106c/gettyimages-823659192.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Senate GOP Seeks 'Skinny' Obamacare Repeal That Many Don't Back og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read the Senate’s ‘Skinny’ Obamacare Repeal Bill in Full twitter:description: It's officially called the Health Care Freedom Act twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eb8a5b2f9208b7c/6988d780656a3fcc3ebd106c/gettyimages-823659192.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 00:39 video:published: 2017-07-28 section: politics topics: health care legislation, Obamacare repeal, individual mandate, employer mandate, Healthcare Freedom Act, insurance requirements, Senate Republicans, health care policy genre: news, political speech tones: assertive, partisan, confident emotions: determination (medium), confidence (medium), criticism (low) sentiment: neutral audience: policy followers, voters, health care stakeholders, political news readers people: Mitch McConnell organizations: Senate, Republican Party products: Obamacare, Healthcare Freedom Act content_suitability: health controversy [00:00-00:39] transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # Read the Senate’s ‘Skinny’ Obamacare Repeal Bill in Full > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### 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. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=2e48055b-11e5-4041-8336-1b4e78b1f7e4&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Mitch McConnell Reveals the Senate's 'Skinny' Obamacare Repeal Bill [Watch (HLS stream): Mitch McConnell Reveals the Senate's 'Skinny' Obamacare Repeal Bill](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IS16Rz75.m3u8) (0:39)  _Published 2017-07-28. Buoyed by a signal from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a pared-down health care bill late Thursday that he hoped would keep alive Republican ambitions to repeal "Obamacare."_ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduces the Healthcare Freedom Act, a pared-down health care bill. He describes it as restoring freedom Americans lost under Obamacare. The bill would repeal the individual mandate and the employer mandate, which he presents as the core pillars of Obamacare. He argues these mandates force people to buy insurance they cannot use or afford and cut workers' hours and pay. ## Key points - McConnell says the Healthcare Freedom Act restores freedom to Americans that Obamacare took away. (00:00) - The legislation repeals the core pillars of Obamacare, according to McConnell. (00:11) - The bill eliminates the so-called individual mandate that requires many Americans to buy Obamacare insurance. (00:16) - McConnell says the individual mandate forces people to buy insurance they don't want, can't afford or can't use. (00:20) - The individual mandate taxes those who do not buy insurance, according to McConnell. (00:28) - The bill repeals the employer mandate, which McConnell says cut hours, take-home pay and job opportunities for workers. (00:32) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:11] Introducing the Healthcare Freedom Act. McConnell introduces the legislation and says it restores freedoms he attributes to Obamacare's removal. - [00:11 to 00:39] Repealing the individual and employer mandates. McConnell describes the bill's repeal of the individual mandate and the employer mandate and the effects he attributes to them. ## Key quotes - [00:00] Mitch McConnell: "The legislation I just laid down is called the Healthcare Freedom Act and it restores freedom to Americans that Obama care took away." - [00:11] Mitch McConnell: "First, the Healthcare Freedom Act repeals the core pillars of Obama care." - [00:16] Mitch McConnell: "It eliminate the so- called, individual mandate, that forces many Americans to buy ObamaCare Insurance, they don't want, can't afford or can't use" - [00:32] Mitch McConnell: "It also repel the employer mandate that cut hours, take home pay, and job opportunities for workers." ## Questions this video answers - What is the Healthcare Freedom Act? [00:00] - What does the bill do to the individual mandate? [00:16] - Why does McConnell say the individual mandate is a problem? [00:20] - What does the bill do about the employer mandate? [00:32] - What effects does McConnell attribute to the employer mandate? [00:32] ## Content suitability - health controversy [00:00-00:39]: Partisan debate over repealing Obamacare and its mandates, presented from one side. by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Jul 28, 2017 4:28 AM UTC Buoyed by a signal from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a pared-down health care bill late Thursday that he hoped would keep alive Republican ambitions to repeal "Obamacare." by [Ryan Kilpatrick](https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/) ## Ryan Kilpatrick Jul 28, 2017 4:28 AM UTC Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a [slimmed-down health care bill ](http://time.com/4877730/senate-skinny-obamacare-repeal-bill-unveiled/)late on Thursday aimed at keeping Republican ambitions to repeal and replace Obamacare alive. Officially known as the Health Care Freedom Act — but informally called “skinny repeal” — the bill in its current form is unlikely to pass into law. The bill instead is intended to pave the way for a House-Senate conference committee to flesh out the details and put together legislation that Congress can pass and send on to President Trump. The bill [repeals the more unpopular parts](http://time.com/4876315/obamacare-senate-skinny-repeal/) of Obamacare, such as the individual and employee mandates for health insurance, and largely leaves Medicaid untouched. Read the full bill below: ## Transcript [00:00] The legislation I just laid down is called the Healthcare [00:02] Freedom Act and it restores freedom to Americans that [00:06] Obama care took away. It does so in a number of ways. [00:11] First, the Healthcare Freedom Act repeals the core pillars [00:16] of Obama care. It eliminate the so- called, individual [00:20] mandate, that forces many Americans to buy ObamaCare [00:24] Insurance, they don't want, can't afford or [00:28] can't use, and taxes those who don't. It [00:32] also repel the employer mandate that cut hours, take home [00:35] pay, and job opportunities for workers. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/"},"headline":"Read the Senate’s ‘Skinny’ Obamacare Repeal Bill in Full","datePublished":"2017-07-28T04:28:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:25:56.474Z","description":"It's officially called the Health Care Freedom Act","url":"https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/","keywords":["Health Care","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eb8a5b2f9208b7c/6988d780656a3fcc3ebd106c/gettyimages-823659192.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Kilpatrick","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-kilpatrick/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8eb8a5b2f9208b7c/6988d780656a3fcc3ebd106c/gettyimages-823659192.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate GOP Seeks 'Skinny' Obamacare Repeal That Many Don't Back","caption":"Senate GOP Seeks 'Skinny' Obamacare Repeal That Many Don't Back","creditText":"Zach Gibson—Bloomberg/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":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/health-care/","name":"Health Care"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/","name":"Read the Senate’s ‘Skinny’ Obamacare Repeal Bill in Full"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Mitch McConnell Reveals the Senate's 'Skinny' Obamacare Repeal Bill","description":"Buoyed by a signal from House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a pared-down health care bill late Thursday that he hoped would keep alive Republican ambitions to repeal \"Obamacare.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/IS16Rz75/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-07-28T03:08:53.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/IS16Rz75.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/","duration":"PT39S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4877723/senate-healthcare-skinny-bill/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```