GOP's Obamacare Counter Plan Would Scrap Mandates

Would not require people to have health insurance

Three senior Senate Republicans on Monday proposed a conservative alternative to ObamaCare that would abolish the law's federal mandates, including the requirement to have insurance.

The legislative blueprint Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) would keep in place some popular aspects of ObamaCare, including allowing dependents to stay on their parents' insurance coverage until they are 26.

But in a major departure from President Obama's overhaul, that requirement and others like it would be voluntary for the states.

"Our health care system wasn't working well before ObamaCare and it is worse after ObamaCare. Americans deserve a real alternative, and a way out. I'm pleased to take this important step with my colleagues," Coburn said in a statement.