CBO Releases Report on Senate Health Care Bill

22 million are estimated to lose coverage
By Gina Carey,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 26, 2017 5:40 PM CDT
CBO Report: 22M Will Lose Coverage Under Senate Bill
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell walks to his office from the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, June 26, 2017.   (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report Monday analyzing the Senate Republicans' health care bill released last week in the party’s latest efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. CNN has the full 50-page report, which estimates that 22 million will lose coverage under the new law. That estimate isn’t far off from the proposed House Republican plan, where 23 million were projected to lose their insurance, reports the Washington Post. If the bill passes, approximately 49 million people would be uninsured by 2026. The report also estimates that the federal deficit is expected to decrease significantly under the bill, but that's largely thanks to big cuts to Medicaid, a major concern for Senate Republicans who have not committed to voting for the bill.

According to the Atlantic, senators including Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Ron Johnson, and Rob Portman say the CBO report’s findings will influence their decisions. “You can’t take over $800 billion out of the Medicaid program and not expect that it's going to have an impact on a rural nursing home that relies on Medicaid for 70% of the costs of its patients,” Collins said on ABC’s This Week, adding that seven or eight of her colleagues would be looking closely at the CBO report. Meanwhile, senators like Rand Paul are hoping to push the bill further to the right by eliminating pre-existing conditions clauses. The Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 was released just last Thursday, but party leaders are rejecting pleas to delay a vote until after the July 4 recess. (More ObamaCare stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X