CBO: 14 million would lose health insurance next year under ‘Trumpcare’
Before reaching his 100th day in office, the Trump presidency continues on its road to disaster. Monday’s news from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a strictly nonpartisan group that produces independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process, that ‘Trumpcare’, as some are calling the plan presented by Republicans to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), will result in 24 million Americans losing health insurance over the next 10 years.
The CBO report said, as reported by The Washington Post, that “According to a Congressional Budget Office projection, 14 million fewer people would have health insurance next year alone. Premiums would be 15 percent to 20 percent higher in the first year compared with the Affordable Care Act and 10 percent lower on average after 2026. By and large, older Americans would pay ‘substantially’ more and younger Americans less.”
The CBO director, Keith Hall, was appointed in 2015 by congressional Republicans. The Office has maintained respect for its objective analysis over the years. Presidents, including Obama and George W. Bush, have relied on their analysis for bills presented before Congress.
Regarding the just released analysis by the CBO, The New York Times said that “[the] plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would raise the number of people without health insurance by 24 million within a decade, but would trim $337 billion from the federal deficit over that time, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said on Monday.”
The same New York Times article adds that “the House Republican legislation, which was released last week, would repeal major parts of President Barack Obama’s health care law. It would scrap the income-based tax credits that helped people pay for coverage, end the penalty for people who do not have health insurance and phase out the expansion of Medicaid that has brought coverage to millions of people.
“Republicans would provide a new tax credit based on age that would help people buy insurance on the individual market. While people would not face a penalty for not buying insurance, Republicans would put in place a new provision to encourage continuous coverage: People would face a 30 percent surcharge in their premiums if they signed up for insurance after having gone without it for about two months or more.”
Before the CBO analysis was released Monday, President Trump predicted that if the Republican plan gets enacted, “you’ll see rates go down, down, down, and you’ll see plans go up, up, up.” He said it would be “a thing of beauty.”
The facts, apparently, are different.
