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Mandate which is being terminated under our just signed tax cut bill. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell didn't say obamacare is dead today. here he is calling on senators to work together on health care legislation. >> the graham/cassidy proposal, they intend to obviously continue to work on. and my view of that is as soon as we have the votes to achieve it i'd like to do that. 51-49 is a pretty tight majority. but i'd love to be able to make more substantial changes to obamacare than we have. >> joining us now is julie robner chief correspondent at kaiser health news and understands this...

Health care compared to other wealthy countries around the world is that we do not have an adequately large and diverse risk pool for people who wish to buy insurance outside of their workplace. that's what the individual mandate was supposed to achieve, getting more and more people to buy insurance so that you've got young and healthy people along with the sick. taking the mandate out, do we not end up once again with a shrunken risk pool of older and sicker people whose health care costs more? >> well, that's certainly possible but, you know, a lot of experts are sort of coming around to the...

Any offsetting increase in subsidies. >> so bottom line here, when you hear talk about this being the beginning of the end of obamacare, fair or not fair? >> no, i don't think so. i think the structure is basically there. for example, if you -- and there are even things that states can do. here in massachusetts, we had an individual mandate from the get-go in 2006 and it is still on the books, it is still in place. this is a no revenue -- in fact slight revenue enhancement to states if those who want to protect individual buyers in the marketplace want to enact their own state mandate. the oth...

A crate and barrel situation for the republicans. they broke it, they own it. president trump has said, you know, every time there is a problem with health care now it's because obamacare is a disaster. because the republicans have now gotten rid of the individual mandate, every time health insurance rates go up, as they always do, it's now going to be on the republicans to explain it. they can try to keep blaming barack obama, it's going to be -- it's going to get even tougher to do that. >> they couldn't pass repeal and replace of obamacare, but this legislation which is about to be signed i...

That cheap. they end up 60% of 70% of a regular health plan. and that's not actually that cheap. it won't bring a lot of people in. it is true, i agree with the president, we need more choice. but all of his actions, changing the rules have way through open enrollment, cutting back on the cost-sharing subsidies, all of these changes are driving insurance companies wacky. they don't know what the risk pool is going to be. so they are increasing rates or just getting out of the market. that is hardly increasing competition and increasing choice. the president and the republicans are actually dri...