The American Action Network has linked to a brief which details the economists view of ObamaCare, specifically the individual mandate. The economists support severing the mandate from ObamaCare. AAN writes:

Amici Curiae are 103 economists who have studied, researched, and participated in the national policy discussion relating to the healthcare markets. Amici include Nobel laureates, former senior government officials, and faculty from research universities around the country. Amici support the need for reform but believe that the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or the “Act”) will likely exacerbate, rather than constrain, the inflation in healthcare costs that poses a serious long-term challenge to the U.S. economy.

You can read the brief on AAN's website, here.

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The Weekly Standard has a great article about the likelihood of repealing ObamaCare in the coming years.  According to American Crossroads PAC, the importance of the ObamaCare repeal in the 2012 election will determine the chances of repeal in the future.

From the article:

More than anything else, what will determine success or failure in making that case and building that momentum is the degree to which the Republican presidential nominee chooses to make repeal a cornerstone of his campaign.  Mitt Romney lists repealing Obamacare as one of the 59 points in his economic plan, but he doesn’t list it among the plan’s top-5 legislative priorities. Moreover, rather than saying he has learned from his mistakes, that he now knows we need an approach that focuses on lowering health costs (and preserving liberty), and that he believes what happens in liberal Massachusetts should stay firmly in Massachusetts, he has defended his health-care law in ways thatcould often double as defenses of Obamacare.  

Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) made several good points about the real cost of ObamaCare, including:

• $2,100 increase in premiums for families buying insurance on their own due to ObamaCare. (Letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Senator Evan Bayh regarding health care premiums, November 30, 2009)
• 65 percent of small businesses say it does nothing to slow down the cost of health insurance – the primary cost driver facing our nation’s job creators despite President Obama’s pledge to reduce premiums for American families by $2,500. (National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Foundation Study, July 2011)
• 77 percent of small businesses say it will increase taxes which in turn will directly affect their ability to create jobs. (National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Foundation Study, July 2011)
• Insurance premiums have increased by almost 200 percent from 3 percent in 2010 to 9 percent in 2011 for families since the passage of the partisan health law. (Annual employer health benefits survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust, September 27, 2011)
• 9.4 percent increase in private health insurance premiums in 2014 (4.4 percentage points higher than without the health law). (“National Health Spending Projections Through 2020: Economic Recovery And Reform Drive Faster Spending Growth,” Health Affairs, July 28, 2011)
• The cost of health care will continue to rise from 8 percent in 2011 to 8.5 percent in 2012. (Pricewaterhouse Coopers Health Research Institute Study, Medical Cost Trends for 2012)
• $311 billion projected increase in health costs due to ObamaCare. (Report from Richard S. Foster, Chief Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, April 22, 2010)
• The President's own Chief Actuary stated that savings from the health law’s programs, estimated by the Administration to be $50 billion over 10 years, are 'unlikely.' (Letter from Richard S. Foster, Chief Actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, September 2, 2011)
• $118 billion in new costs imposed on states for ObamaCare's Medicaid expansions—budgetary costs that will crowd out other state programs like education or law enforcement. (Joint Report by the Senate Finance Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee, Medicaid Expansion in the New Health Law: Costs To The States, March 1, 2011)

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