June 2017 ~

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in partnership with the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), has completed its assessment of the direct spending and revenue effects the American Health Care Act (AHCA) – H.R. 1628, as passed by the House of Representatives and released its revised score.

In the updated score, CBO and JCT project that the most recent version of the bill would reduce the cumulative federal deficit over the 2017-2026 period by $119 billion – $32 billion less than the estimated net savings for the previous version of H.R. 1628.

According to the report, “In comparison with the estimates for the previous version of the act, under the House-passed act, the number of people with health insurance would, by CBO and JCT’s estimates, be slightly higher and average premiums for insurance purchased individually would be lower, in part because the insurance, on average, would pay for a smaller proportion of health care costs. In addition, the agencies expect that some people would use the tax credits authorized by the act to purchase policies that would not cover major medical risks and that are not counted as insurance in this cost estimate.”

The CBO and JCT estimate that, in 2018, 14 million more people would be uninsured under H.R. 1628 than under current law. According to the report, the increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number projected under current law would reach 19 million in 2020 and 23 million in 2026. In 2026, an estimated 51 million people under age 65 would be uninsured, compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law.

Read the full Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate of H.R. 1628, here.

 

Source(s): MGMA; Congressional Budget Office; Kaiser Health News; Lexology;