More than 14 million people could lose their health insurance next year under the GOP’s plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, a report said Monday, but the Trump administration called that figure “virtually impossible.”
The number could swell to 24 million by 2026, according to the “score” the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation gave the proposed legislation.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price dismissed the CBO report as bogus.
“We disagree strenuously with the report that was put out,” Tom Price said after leaving a Cabinet meeting with Trump at the White House. “It’s just not believable is what we would suggest.”
At the same time, the Republican plan would cut federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period, mostly because of cuts to Medicaid and the reduction of the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies for health insurance.
The nonpartisan office predicted that the proposed changes would not destabilize the market for health insurance because premiums would be low enough to attract healthy people to sign up.
The projections gave a new weapon to opponents of the measure — but Republicans on Capital Hill sidestepped the losses in people insured and instead focused on the savings.
“This report confirms that the American Health Care Act will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the driving force behind the new plan, said. “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.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed Ryan’s sentiment saying the CBO report showed their plan would “ultimately lower premiums and increase access to care.”
President Trump, meanwhile, touted the plan. “You’ll see rates go down, down, down and plans go up, up, up,” he said.