Nice try, GOP. Why don't you fix the entire problem with the health insurance companies and the drug companies by giving all Americans single payer healthcare? I guess you are too dependent on those sweet, sweet 'donations' (bribes) from big Pharma and the healthcare industry.

Premiums are higher than what some people previously had because insurance companies are no longer allowed to simply steal some of your money for a rip-off insurance plan with no coverage. Eliminating these mandates is not the way to now seek ways to reduce premiums. We need to give time for the incentivization of lowest-cost, effective medical care to drive costs down, we need negotiating power with big pharma, we need to have more people insured, and we need to further reduce the amount of premiums insurance companies are allowed to charge for "administrative fees" (current cap is 20%). There is so much more we can do, too, to keep the current momentum we have of ensuring everyone actually has quality coverage while still driving costs down. Moreover, the two mandates this would eliminate have been demonstrated to save everyone money in the long run by making people healthier. And people who want to go back to their old insurance that cost nothing and covered nothing usually end up losing more money in the long run, because they eventually age or get sick and then have to pay for damn-near all of the medical care out of pocket.

It's amazing that people don't want to look at the real problem here: unfettered corporate greed. That's the "free market" for you. Healthcare needs to be universal.

Simple solution? Single-Payer Healthcare.

The whole point of the mandates is so the insurance companies provide quality basic care and don't rip you off. Affordable Care Act is a tax law and the issue is that the insurance companies want to continue making huge profits from you, but now that they have to cover people they previously refused to give coverage to, they want want to increase their margins by increasing premiums on you to discourage you to use their coverage to seek the medical care you need. There are multiple solutions to the rising premiums issue, but this isn't one of them - no matter what the insurance lobby says. Some solutions include: A. opening the insurance market to the whole country instead of by state. B. creating a competing federal corporation (think FreddieMac and FennieMae) that offers basic coverage for a reasonable price. This will drive the prices offered by private insurance down, and allow customers to seek premium healthcare from private insurance if they want something in additional to basic coverage. Option A and B could work phenomenal together and make a huge difference. Option C would be to have mandated prices for basic coverage offered by private insurance companies, possibly offering subsidies. Option D is to switch to a UK type system where the government provides healthcare and premium services such as dental are offered on the private market.

Let's start with expanding Medicare in those states that refuse federal dollars to ensure poor people have access to insurance. If that doesn't work we can try something else. This obstructionism is petty and childish, much like the people who refuse to help the needy, which coincidentally are "family values" republicans and that's just plain hypocrisy.

Obamacare needs to be repealed and the government needs to get the hell out of the healthcare business.

The main issue is greed. Think about it. Canadian pharmaceutical companies make the same medicines our U.S. pharmaceutical companies make. Their prices can be more than half the cost of the US version. I'm sure there is some sort of cost cap placed on most of the more widely used medications. Premiums have gone up because our US insurance companies have decided a certain amount of profitability is the only way to make board members and stockholders happy. Insurance companies need to change their mission to one that incorporates fairness to all people and not just the people who can afford it. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and the government need to sit down and have this discussion "at the same time". This country is supposed to based on Christian values (there has never been a true separation of church and state - look at our elections). If these values are so entrenched, they should apply to how we "do not" allow large corporations to mistreat our hard working citizens. Everyone should have the opportunity to live the best life they can and that means being healthy enough to manage and change their lives.

Yea the insurance companies will willingly do things to bring down prices. Lol

Regulations for insurance companies is not the answer to why the insurance premium are high. The regulation is needed to make sure the companies cover every American despite of health history or problems. This is a wasteful bill. The part of the ACA doesn't need to be fixed.

Obamacare needs to be repealed, and let people choose their own healthcare!

This bill destroys some of the important provisions in the Affordable Care Act. While this law may lower premiums, the cost of health care would go up for people who use their insurance by eliminating out of pocket spending limits. By getting rid of these provisions, the law is severely weakened.