US tax bill should include repeal of health insurance mandate: Senate Republican leader

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday threw his support behind including a repeal of the Obamacare mandate for individual health insurance in the Senate's tax reform bill.

"We're optimistic that inserting the individual mandate repeal would be helpful and that's obviously the view of the Senate Finance Committee Republicans as well," McConnell told reporters.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell and Richard Cowan; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by David Alexander)