23 million more uninsured with GOP health bill

WASHINGTON (AP) – The health care bill that Republicans recently pushed through the House would leave 23 million more Americans without insurance and confront many others who have costly medical conditions with coverage that could prove unaffordable, Congress’ official budget analysts said Wednesday.

Premiums on average would fall compared to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul – a chief goal of many Republicans – but that would be partly because policies would typically provide less coverage, said the report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

In some areas of the country, people with pre-existing medical conditions and others who were seriously ill “would ultimately be unable to purchase” robust coverage at premiums comparable to today’s prices, “if they could purchase at all,” the report said.

Democrats jumped on the report as further evidence that the GOP effort to repeal Obama’s 2010 law – a staple of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and those of numerous GOP congressional candidates for years – would be destructive. It comes three weeks after the House passed the legislation with only Republican votes, and as Senate Republicans try crafting their own version, which they say will be different.

“The report makes clear that Trumpcare would be a cancer on the American health care system,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., using the nickname Democrats have tried pinning on the bill. Schumer said the legislation would end up “causing costs to skyrocket, making coverage unaffordable for those with preexisting conditions and many seniors, and kicking millions off of their health insurance.”