Under Trumpcare, 24 million fewer people would have health insurance by 2026, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Monday.
The Republican healthcare plan—also known as the American Health Care Act (AHCA)—would also reduce federal deficits by as much as $337 billion over the next decade, the report said.
CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation further estimate that next year, an additional 14 million Americans would be uninsured under the plan, a consequence of repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate. “Some of those people would choose not to have insurance because they chose to be covered by insurance under the current law only to avoid paying the penalties, and some people would forgo insurance in response to higher premiums,” the report states.
Due to a reduction in the number of comparatively healthy people, CBO says, Trumpcare would cause the average premiums for single policyholders to rise 15-20 percent over the next two years.
“Under the legislation, insurers would be allowed to generally charge five times more for older enrollees than younger ones rather than three times more as under current law,” the report said, “substantially reducing premiums for young adults and substantially raising premiums for older people.”
The plan does not appear to meet an ambitious goal set by the president, who shortly before the inauguration in January promised the GOP plan would provide “insurance for everybody.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan praised the report online, saying it proved Trumpcare would “lower premiums & improve access to quality, affordable care.”
Outside the White House on Monday afternoon, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price trashed the CBO report, denying the plan would leave millions uninsured. “The fact of the matter is, if you look at that, it would be impossible to have that number occur,” he said.
The White House, Price said, “strenuously disagreed” with CBO’s assessment.