The Obama Administration left President Trump with a ticking time bomb called Obamacare. The choice was either to spend massive amounts of money or to scrap the entire system.
Some people even believe that Obamacare was meant to collapse so that Hillary (had she been elected) could swoop in and rescue us with a socialized “single payer” system.
As I wrote last week, the Trump Administration has finally revealed its plan to replace Obamacare.
Lawmakers estimate the new healthcare strategy will cut federal deficits by $337 billion over the next 10 years. It will also leave up to 24 million Americans without health insurance.
The repealing of the ACA’s “individual mandate” alone will result in 14 million fewer Americans holding insurance in 2018, said the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) after a deep analysis of the GOP plan.
The CBO report “also finds that people would go without coverage because of cuts to Medicaid and a drop in financial assistance under the bill,” reports The Hill.
In general, the GOP plan would have younger people paying less and older people paying more – mainly due to a provision that allows insurers to charge more for elderly enrollees.
Over the next 10 years, the American Health Care Act would cut federal spending by over 1 trillion (mainly by eliminating ACA subsidies and putting a cap on Medicaid spending); it would also cut taxes by $592 billion. The plan’s tax credit system would cost less than 50% of what the ACA’s assistance program would have cost over the same amount of time.
The American Health Care Act also promises to block Planned Parenthood from receiving all Medicaid reimbursements for one year.
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Yes, the new plan will leave millions uninsured. But these people were going to lose coverage anyway. Obamacare is imploding, and many insurance companies would have pulled out within two years – leaving people with no options.
The “repeal and replace” effort may cause premiums to increase by as much as 20% for 2018 and 2019, but President Trump has warned us about this.
The biggest problems with Obamacare were always expected to occur in 2017 and 2018. With the Trump Administration’s “free enterprise” approach, there is at least the possibility that costs will come down. Analysts predict that rates will be 10% lower in ten years.
The CBO report will likely affect the bill’s chances of passing, and Democrats are furious with Republicans for pushing the bill through two House committees last week before the analysis had been completed. Trump will likely be called upon to defend his promise of creating a system that offers “insurance for everybody.”
Republicans argue that the CBO has no way of predicting how many people will be insured, because “their plan tries to drive down costs and provide universal ‘access’ to coverage, rather than mandating everyone to buy it,” reports the Washington Times.
“If you’re looking to the CBO for accuracy, you’re looking in the wrong place,” said White House Press Sec. Sean Spicer.
Congressional GOP leaders are already having a difficult time convincing rank-and-file members to support the healthcare legislation, and the CBO report could make matters worse.
House Speaker Paul Ryan views the CBO report favorably, saying Monday that the report “confirms that the American Health Care Act will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care. CBO also finds that this legislation will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit, and make the most fundamental entitlement reform in more than a generation.”
“I recognize and appreciate concerns about making sure people have access to coverage,” Ryan continues. “Our plan is not about forcing people to buy expensive, one-size-fits-all coverage. It is about giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford.”
Editor’s note: This was not unexpected, since will no longer be punishing people for not having insurance. The CBO’s numbers. however. will become part of the Democratic propaganda machine for a long time.