Because enough is never going to be enough for Republicans, they're going to take a stab at Obamacare repeal in their ‘tax cuts for rich people’ legislation. They can't repeal the whole thing, but they can try to pile on to the critical blows the law is suffering undert the Trump administration. That means taking away one of the primary motivators for younger, healthier people to sign up for insurance: the individual mandate.
"I've been working for some time with the House Ways and Means Committee and our Finance Committee," [Sen. Tom] Cotton (R-AR) told reporters Monday night. "Almost every colleague with whom I have spoken is favorably disposed to repealing the individual mandate of Obamacare as part of our tax package." […]
"This does not take insurance away from a single person," said Cotton. "It does not cut a dime from Medicaid or the insurance subsidies. It simply says the IRS will not fine you if you cannot afford insurance. And it would save us $300 billion over ten years and even more after that."
Cotton's office did not respond to TPM's inquiry as to his source for that budget-saving estimate, but it appears to come from a 2011 report by the Congressional Budget Office that found the government would only save money because repealing the mandate would "substantially reduce the number of people with health insurance coverage."
The savings would come from these people not receiving subsidies from the federal government to pay their premiums. That would leave millions of people uninsured not because they don't want to be, but because having so many healthy people who decide they don't need insurance leave the markets would drive up costs for everyone else's coverage. So, yeah, Cotton is lying. It's going to take insurance away from a lot of people.
And as usual, Republicans don't care.