‘Trumpcare’ gets black eye

COST-CUTTING: BUT NEW PLAN REDUCES FEDERAL DEFICIT BY $337BN OVER 10 YEARS

Millions of Americans will lose medical coverage if Republicans get their way.

Washington

Fourteen million fewer Americans will have health insurance next year under the Republican plan to replace Obamacare, a nonpartisan congressional analysis projected on Monday.

This heaped pressure on President Donald Trump to make good on his pledge to broaden coverage.

By 2026, that number would shoot up to 24 million, the Congressional budget office said, largely because the Bill would undo the Obamacare rule mandating people to have health insurance.

It also said that the measure before Congress – backed by Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan – would reduce the federal deficit by $337 billion over the next decade.

Part of that reduction comes from the plan’s phasing out of the Medicaid expansion by 2020, which would save a massive $880 billion.

Average health coverage premiums would rise 15% to 20% in 2018 and 2019 for individual policy holders, it said.

The projection was seen as a black eye on Trump’s repeal-and-replace plan, which already faced substantial opposition from within his own party over fears it would leave millions uninsured. However, the online magazine Politico, citing a White House document, reported that the executive’s own analysis forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade, higher than the 24 million estimated by the CBO. Trump and his inner circle nevertheless insist that the plan is a vast improvement over Barack Obama’s signature health care reform – which many Republicans say caused insurance costs to spike.

“We disagree strenuously with the report that was put out,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

Our plan is about giving people more choices.

He said the CBO gave an incomplete picture of the Republican plan, which includes future steps to deregulate the market and allow people to buy insurance across state lines.

For Democrats, the CBO report proves that the Republican plan is a disaster.

“‘Trumpcare’ would be a nightmare for the American people,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said, as he and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi urged Ryan to scrap the legislation. Ryan, however, gave an optimistic portrayal of the plan.

“Our plan is not about forcing people to buy expensive, one-sizefits-all coverage.

“It is about giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford,” Ryan said. –