The individual mandate is one of the keyprovisions that is said to make the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act financially viable by getting young, healthypeople who often forgo health insurance to join the insurance pool.But that mandate is not necessarily cheap for the Americantaxpayer.

According to a new report from the nonpartisan CongressionalBudget Office, repealing the provision would save the federalgovernment approximately $300 billion over the next decade. Most ofthat savings would come from fewer seeking the subsidies that mostpeople who enroll in individual plans on the exchange seek from thefederal government to help pay for their insurance.

Opponents of the PPACA may be tempted to view the figures asobvious evidence that the law is too costly to justify.

And yet, repealing the mandate wouldn't necessarily save theaverage American any money. The report predicts repeal wouldprovoke the exodus of 14 million people from the insurance market,raise the number of uninsured to about 43 million and drive uppremiums by 20 percent.

The federal government would also lose out on $6 billion offines paid by those who have refused to buy insurance. In thecontext of the federal budget, that is a pretty small figure ––perhaps one of the reasons some have argued the fine is toolow.

And Americans are certainly not off the hook when it comes tothe uninsured. Those who lack insurance are likely costing themthrough expensive emergency room visits, the cost of which areoften passed on to those with coverage.