Revised GOP health bill still leaves 24M more uninsured after decade, CBO says
— -- A new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on the GOP’s health care bill says that the revised version would have similar effects on health insurance coverage and premiums, and a smaller effect on reducing the federal deficit than initially predicted.
The CBO’s initial estimate, released last Monday, projected that 14 million people more people would be uninsured next year than would be under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare.
That number was estimated to rise to 24 million by 2026. The new report states of the revised version that "estimates differ by no more than half a million people in any category in any year over the next decade."
Republican supporters of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) were quick to focus on the CBO's calculation that the law would eventually reduce the deficit by $337 billion over the next decade in the initial version of the bill. However, that number has now been reduced by $186 billion to $151 billion in deficit reduction over the 2017-2026 period in the revised version.
The new report is adjusted for the changes House Republicans made to the AHCA bill late Monday night. A number of the revisions focused on Medicaid, including the option for states to require individuals to provide proof of work to qualify for the program.
The House vote on the AHCA, originally scheduled for Thursday, has been delayed and is expected to take place Friday morning.
The White House is "confident" that the bill will pass, according to deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
