The Congressional Budget Office released its report on the Republican's health care plan, saying that an estimated 14 million more people will be uninsured next year if the plan becomes law.
The report estimates that by 2018, "14 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law."
One of the biggest changes between the new health care plan and the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, is that there is no penalty for people who do not sign up for insurance. The CBO states that taking that requirement out is one of the biggest contributing factors to the increase in the number of those uninsured.
"Most of that increase would stem from repealing the penalties associated with the individual mandate. Some of those people would choose not to have insurance because they chose to be covered by insurance under current law only to avoid paying the penalties, and some people would forgo insurance in response to higher premiums," the report states.
The number of those uninsured under the proposed plan only continues to grow over time: 21 million more people uninsured by 2020 than would be under Obamacare. That number climbs to 24 million by 2026, according to the CBO.
"In 2026, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured, compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law," the report states.
The GOP plan would decrease the federal deficit by $337 billion between 2017 and 2026.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has been one of the biggest champions of the proposed American Health Care Act, said the report "confirms" that it "will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care."
"I recognize and appreciate concerns about making sure people have access to coverage. Under Obamacare, we have seen how government-mandated coverage does not equal access to care, and now the law is collapsing. Our plan is not about forcing people to buy expensive, one-size-fits-all coverage. It is about giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford," Ryan said in a statement shortly after the CBO report was released.
The CBO is a nonpartisan agency that produces budget and economic projections, along with cost estimates of pending legislation that project how bills would affect federal spending and revenues.
The agency’s report on the GOP's American Health Care Act will give lawmakers and the American people a more complete picture of the GOP plan and what it would do if passed. Depending on the estimates, it could help determine how many members of Congress vote for it – and whether the bill passes the House and Senate.
White House and administration officials started undermining the CBO results days ahead of its release, with press secretary Sean Spicer saying on March 8 that "if you're looking to the CBO for accuracy, you're looking in the wrong place," pointing to the CBO's 2010 reports on the Affordable Care Act.
"Anyone who can do basic math can understand their projections for Obamacare the last time were way, way off the mark,” he said.
Asked if the numbers are legitimate in today's briefing, Spicer said, "All I'm suggesting to you is the numbers they did the last time they did health care were off by more than 50 percent when it came to the number of people insured. That's not my interpretation. That's a fact."
The March 2010 report from the CBO on Obamacare was way off in its estimates of marketplace enrollment. In 2010 the CBO projected that by 2016 21 million people would have health insurance via the ACA marketplaces, but in reality, that number was closer to 12 million.
from ABC News: Politics http://ift.tt/2nxyLgz
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