Congressional Budget Office: 22 Million More Americans Uninsured Under Trump’s New Obamacare 2.0
The Congressional Budget Office forecasts 22 million more Americans would be uninsured by 2026 under the Senate’s health bill, compared to leaving the Affordable Care Act unchanged. That’s a minor improvement from the 23 million Americans who would be uninsured under the health bill passed by House Republicans, but it’s still a serious hurdle for the GOP.
Republican leaders added a penalty for people who’ve let their insurance lapse Monday as party leaders prepared to begin pushing their health care measure through the Senate, despite a rebellion within GOP ranks.
Under the new provision, people who’ve had at least a 63-day gap in coverage during the past year and then buy a policy would face a six-month delay before it takes effect. Until now, the measure that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., introduced last week included no language prodding healthy customers to purchase insurance.
The change is aimed at helping insurance companies and the insurance market by discouraging healthy people from waiting to buy a policy until they get sick. Insurers need healthy customers who are inexpensive to cover to help pay the costs of people with medical conditions that are costly to treat.
The Senate bill would roll back much of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul. His statute pressures people to buy insurance by imposing a tax penalty on those who don’t, but the Republican legislation would repeal that penalty, effectively erasing Obama’s so-called individual mandate.
The House approved its legislation in May. It would require insurers to boost premiums by 30 percent for those whose coverage lapsed.
