CBO Report: 23 Million to Lose Coverage Under AHCA

Health care groups that represent doctors and patients are warning members of Congress that the House Republicans’ plan to overhaul the Affordable Care Act would hurt people who need insurance most.

Under the American Health Care Act, some people, the CBO says, would not be able to buy full health insurance at premiums comparable to those under the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.

Now, the GOP’s laser focus on lowering premiums could undermine comprehensive coverage, such as the current guarantees that people with medical problems can get health insurance, or that plans will cover costly conditions such as substance abuse.

The CBO found that people with pre-existing conditions could face insurance premiums so high they would be unable to afford coverage.

OH schools are required by law to provide certain special education services to students with disabilities, such as speech therapy, behavioral health services, or specialized transportation. She said it would lead to more than 28,000 North Dakotans not having coverage and make coverage unaffordable for more than 300,000 in North Dakota with pre-existing conditions.

Republicans have promised to repeal ACA since its 2010 enactment, and the House voted more than 50 times on various repeal measures in the past half dozen years.

But proponents – like Speaker Paul Ryan – continue to argue the bill will save most Americans from paying more under Obamacare. And even then it would leave California on the hook for $200 billion, which would require a substantial tax increase in a state that already has high taxes.

“Under the act, premiums for older people could be five times larger than those for younger people in many states, but the size of the tax credits for older people would be only twice the size of the credits for younger people”, the report says.

In a purely financial sense, the AHCA would decrease the deficit by approximately 350 Billion dollars over 10 years while at the same time reducing taxes by nearly a trillion dollars for the wealthiest Americans over the same period.

That’s what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Wednesday in its latest score of the American Health Care Act.

The top-line numbers in the CBO score are bad enough, but they are more than just numbers and this report underscores the real-life impact the legislation could have on poor children.

States could also apply to do away with the 10 essential health benefits that people are now required to have covered. The CBO projects that, by 2026, there will be 14 million fewer people with Medicaid coverage, 3 million fewer with employer-sponsored coverage, and 6 million fewer with individual market coverage.

The House bill would cut $880 billion from Medicaid during the next decade, which provides coverage for low-income Americans and helps pay for long-term care for people with disabilities and seniors. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it never, ever becomes law”, said Sen.

After hearing that, 65 percent of respondents said they saw the bill unfavorably, compared to 35 percent who viewed it favorably, according to the poll, which had a margin of error of 3 percent. The ideologically diverse group of senators, which meets twice a week and has grown to more than 13, was designed as a testing ground for ideas and a way to educate lawmakers about the intricacies of writing a health-care bill. And their bill includes money for states to create so-called high-risk pools in which people with medical conditions can buy coverage if commercial insurers refuse them.