The analysis by the Congressional Budget Office is nearly identical to its assessment of a similar bill.
WASHINGTON — Congressional budget analysts estimated Wednesday that a Senate plan to repeal part of the Affordable Care Act with no immediate replacement would increase the number of people without health coverage by 17 million next year and 32 million at the end of a decade.
The forecast by the Congressional Budget Office of the impact on coverage of Senate Republicans’ latest health-care legislation is nearly identical to estimates the CBO made in January based on a similar bill that passed both the House and Senate in late 2015 – and was vetoed by then-President Obama.
The new report also said the legislation would decrease federal deficits by $473 billion over that 10-year window.
The measure, which appears to have little chance of passing, would get rid of ACA premium subsidies as of 2020 and would eliminate the penalty most Americans face if they go without health insurance.
It would end Medicaid expansion as of 2020 as well as repeal several of the ACA’s taxes. And the cost-sharing subsidies that have been paid to insurers to help lower-income consumers afford their deductibles and other health expenses would be repealed in 2020.
Earlier Wednesday, President Trump, hoping to avoid a humiliating political defeat, demanded that Republican senators resume their efforts to approve a plan to repeal and replace the ACA, insisting that lawmakers are “very close.”
A day after the Republican strategy to roll back the ACA appeared dead, Trump invited Republican senators to lunch at the White House and challenged them to work out an agreement even if it means remaining in Washington through their summer recess next month. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., had previously announced that the recess would be delayed by two weeks.
“People should not leave town unless we have a health insurance plan, unless we give our people great health care, ” Trump said at the beginning of the lunch. “We’ re close, very close.… We have to hammer this out and get it done.”
The president’s effort to resurrect negotiations came a day after he declared that it was time to give up on the contentious process to overturn Obama’s signature legislative achievement and “let Obamacare fail.”
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