Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Republicans Expecting Bad News From CBO's Coverage And Costs Analysis
All eyes this week are off the floor as Capitol Hill awaits a Congressional Budget Office score for House Republicans鈥 health care plan and the House Budget Committee prepares to mark up the plan. While a CBO estimate on how much the plan to partially repeal and replace the 2010 health care law will cost and what effect it would have on those with insurance is expected as soon as Monday, the Budget Committee has scheduled its markup of the legislation for Wednesday morning. (Dick, 3/13)
Republicans pushing a plan to dismantle Barack Obama鈥檚 health care law are bracing for a Congressional Budget Office analysis widely expected to conclude that fewer Americans will have health coverage under the proposal, despite President Donald Trump鈥檚 promise of 鈥渋nsurance for everybody.鈥 House Speaker Paul Ryan said he fully expects the CBO analysis, set to be released as early as Monday, to find less coverage since the GOP plan eliminates the government requirement to be insured. (Yen, 3/13)
House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican healthcare plan's top backer in Congress, acknowledged on NBC's "Meet the Press" program on Sunday that the CBO projections would likely show a decline in insurance coverage because the legislation would drop an Obamacare provision mandating that Americans obtain health insurance or pay a fine. "The one thing I'm certain will happen is CBO will say: 'Well, gosh. Not as many people will get coverage,'" Ryan said. "You know why? Because this isn't a government mandate." (3/13)
The nation's uninsured rate has fallen to a historic low under Obamacare, but you'd never know that listening to Republican leaders speak.Bracing for a harsh assessment of their Obamacare repeal bill, House GOP leadership and the Trump administration are attacking the accuracy of the congressional agency tasked with reviewing it. (Luhby, 3/13)