New version of AHCA still leaves 23M uninsured, CBO report says

May 24 (UPI) — Republican lawmakers’ third attempt at replacing the Affordable Care Act has already passed the House, but an uncertain climate in the Senate — and a new forecast analysis issued Wednesday — may sour the bill’s prospects at becoming law.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s long-awaited review of the current American Health Care Act. According says it would leave 14 million more Americans uninsured next year than the ACA would have.

The CBO’s analysis of the first two versions of the AHCA, which failed in the House, also noted that 24 million Americans would lose coverage by 2026. Wednesday’s report says the new bill still leaves 23 million uncovered over the same period — a net gain of about 1 million people.

Further, the new proposal also would only cut the federal deficit by $119 billion in the next decade — the least amount of all three versions — the CBO report said. The first showed a savings of $337 billion and the second $150 billion.

“CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimate that, in 2018, 14 million more people would be uninsured under [the new proposal] than under current law,” the CBO report stated. “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. Under the legislation, a few million of those people would use tax credits to purchase policies that would not cover major medical risks.”

House Republicans were criticized on May 4 when they passed the new AHCA by a vote of 217-213, partly because they voted to send it to the Senate without first reviewing the CBO analysis.

Now that the report has been issued, the GOP proposal, known colloquially as “Trumpcare,” is again the target of critics.

“Today’s devastating CBO score hammers home Trumpcare’s dire consequences for working families and seniors across the country,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “House Republicans have tattooed themselves with a Trumpcare bill that means higher costs, 23 million hard-working Americans losing coverage, shredding key protections, a crushing age tax and stealing from Medicare.”