Republicans dismiss new budget analysis of health plan

WASHINGTON — Republicans yesterday dismissed an upcoming Congressional Budget Office analysis that is expected to conclude that more Americans will be uninsured under a proposal to dismantle former President Barack Obama’s health law.

Meanwhile, GOP opponents from the right and center hardened their positions against the bill, backed by President Trump. House conservatives vowed to block the bill as “Obamacare Lite” unless there are more restrictions, even as a Republican senator warned the plan would never pass as is due to opposition from moderates.

“Do not walk the plank and vote for a bill that cannot pass the Senate and then have to face the consequences of that vote,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). “If they vote for this bill, they’re going to put the House majority at risk next year.”

In television interviews, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Trump administration officials vowed to move forward on their proposed “repeal and replace” plan regardless of the CBO findings, insisting they can work past GOP disagreements and casting the issue as one of “choice” in which consumers are freed of a government mandate to buy insurance.

The CBO is scheduled to release its long-awaited cost analysis of the House GOP leadership plan early this week, including estimates on the number of people likely to be covered. It’ll likely affect Republicans’ chances of passing the proposal.

Ryan (R-Wis.) said he fully expects the CBO analysis to find that fewer people will be covered under the GOP plan because it eliminates the government requirement to be insured.

“What we’re trying to achieve here is bringing down the cost of care, bringing down the cost of insurance not through government mandates and monopolies but by having more choice and competition,” he said. “We’re not going to make an American do what they don’t want to do.”

The GOP legislation would eliminate the current mandate that nearly all people in the United States carry insurance or face fines. It would use tax credits to help consumers buy health coverage, expand health savings accounts, phase out an expansion of Medicaid and cap that program for the future, end some requirements for health plans under Obama’s law, and scrap a number of taxes.