Obamacare Repeal To Cut Deficit, But Greatly Expand Ranks of Uninsured

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted in January that a complete repeal of Obamacare would leave 23 million Americans without health insurance by 2026.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi have slammed the Republican plan to replace Obamacare.

But in addition to changing then-President Barack Obama’s signature health care law, the legislation also proposes major changes to the Medicaid program, the federal- and state-funded program that insures many disabled individuals, elderly people and children.

The legislation’s greatest savings come from reducing spending on Medicaid and eliminating the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies.

21 million more people would be uninsured by 2020.

That would be a fair conclusion based on forecasts released by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) last night.

We should just let Obamacare implode. In my view, and what the American people want is an improvement on Obamacare, not the decimation of Obamacare, and throwing so many people off of health insurance and raising premiums substantially.

The report attributes lower premiums to rules allowing insurers to offer more flexible plans and “a younger mix of enrollees” who could opt to select options with lower rates without being negatively affected by less comprehensive coverage. In some cases, insurance under this plan will be eye-poppingly expensive: Even after a tax credit, CBO estimates a single-coverage premium of $14,600 for a 64-year-old – even if his or her income is as low as $26,500. None of those are welcome results.

“I recognize and appreciate concerns about making sure people have access to coverage”, Ryan said.

“We will see what the score is”. Republicans have argued that community health centers, unaffiliated with Planned Parenthood that have nothing to do with abortion, could pick up the slack but the CBO analysis suggests otherwise.

That’s ridiculous on its face.

Trump told a White House gathering of Americans who say they’ve been negatively affected by the Affordable Care Act that it could take several years before a drop in prices. How would new legislation impact the healthcare system? But, hey, we’re going to save some money, so Paul Ryan is happy. There are 8-9 million people who are on the exchange now. “For health policy experts, liberal and conservative, the rush to enact a measure that even its authors concede is incomplete is risky”. “When people have more choices, costs go down”.

“As of today, they do not have the votes based on the public comments by Senators”. But those who do need care would definitely not be served by policies with higher co-pays, higher deductibles and more exclusions.

“What we’re trying to achieve here is bringing down the cost of care, bringing down the cost of insurance not through government mandates and monopolies but by having more choice and competition”, Ryan, R-Wis., said on Sunday.

All those people dropping off the employer insurance rolls actually makes the individual market – part of what the ObamaCare tried to fix – look better in 2026. That’s 17 percent fewer than projected under current law.

Craig Garthwaite, director of the healthcare programme at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said the CBO estimates made it harder for Republicans to sell their proposal. And that blows a giant hole in the rationale for “repeal and replace”.