Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
24 Million More Would Be Uninsured Under GOP Replacement Plan By 2026
The House Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of people without health insurance by 24 million by 2026, while slicing $337 billion off federal budget deficits over that time, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Monday. (Kaplan and Pear, 3/13)
The report predicted that premiums would be 15 percent to 20 percent higher in the first year compared with those under the Affordable Care Act but 10 percent lower on average after 2026. By and large, older Americans would pay 鈥渟ubstantially鈥 more and younger Americans less. (Goldstein, Viebeck, Snell and DeBonis, 3/13)
Fourteen million more people would be uninsured next year, mostly 6 million who wouldn't get coverage on the individual market and 5 million fewer under Medicaid. The number of uninsured would rise to 24 million in 2026. Much of the increase would be from changes in Medicaid enrollment as states end Obama's expansions of eligibility. (3/14)
In addition, CBO estimates that the Republican bill would reduce the number of employers offering health insurance, in part because it repeals the employer mandate to provide insurance. The CBO also notes that the GOP plan's tax credits (available only to people who aren't offered insurance at their jobs) would be available to more people than under Obamacare. (Kurtzleben, 3/13)
Hardest hit in the long run will be lower-income Americans and those nearing retirement, according to the budget office, which estimates that over the next decade, the GOP legislation would cut about $1 trillion in federal healthcare assistance to low- and moderate-income Americans. (Levey and Mascaro, 3/13)
The House Republicans鈥 mechanism for persuading healthy Americans to stay insured would be largely ineffective, according to the new Congressional Budget Office analysis released Monday, and it would ultimately lead to about 2 million fewer Americans buying insurance each year. (Eilperin, 3/13)
The 2018 portrait is particularly awkward. About 14 million more people would be uninsured next year under House Speaker Paul Ryan鈥檚 health plan compared to Obamacare. Although the CBO said the measure would eventually reduce the deficit, the cost figures would still be rising through 2018, while premiums would also still be going up. (Edney, Tracer and Wasson, 3/13)
[Fifteen] percent of Planned Parenthood clinic patients would 鈥渓ose access to care.鈥 These patients generally live in areas without other sources of medical care for low-income people. (Rovner, 3/13)
A congressional plan to make Planned Parenthood ineligible for federal funding would leave many women without services to help them avoid pregnancy, resulting in thousands of additional births, according to a new federal budget analysis. (Somashekhar, 3/13)
CBO estimates that the bill would cut federal spending on Medicaid by $880 billion by 2026. (Williams and Mershon, 3/13)
The Republicans have cast themselves as hard-headed saviors of a broken system in which Americans are forced to buy coverage they don鈥檛 want and can鈥檛 afford. But the numbers CBO issued Monday won鈥檛 make for an easier sell. (Bettelheim and Millman, 3/13)
Here are the key findings from the report. (Park, Lai, Patel and Almukhtar, 3/13)
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Monday released its estimates of the cost and coverage of the American Health Care Act, the Republican plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. (3/13)