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CBO: ObamaCare fix would not make up for mandate repeal
Trying to obtain the Senate support of Susan Coillins (R/MA) for the upcoming tax bill vote, Trump and McConnell said they would include the Murry/Alaxander Obamacare 'fix'. The CBO says that the 'fix' is not going to change anything. Millions will still lose their healthcare coverage and premiums will keep on rising if the Obamacare mandate is repealed in the tax legislation.
Yet another tax-reform 'hocus-pokus' lie by Trump and the GOP leadership is exposed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
BY PETER SULLIVAN
The Hill
11/29/17
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that a bipartisan ObamaCare fix would not do much to make up for the premium increases or coverage losses from repealing the health-care law’s individual mandate. In a letter to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) on Wednesday, CBO Director Keith Hall wrote that the estimate of premiums rising 10 percent and 13 million fewer people with coverage over 10 years would remain roughly the same even if the bipartisan fix from Murray and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) were added in. Even with the bipartisan legislation “the effects on premiums and the number of people with health insurance coverage would be similar to those referenced above,” Hall wrote, referring to the CBO’s previous estimates on mandate repeal.
The letter from the CBO gives fuel to Democrats’ argument that the Alexander–Murray bill is not enough to make up for the effects of repealing the individual mandate. Moderate Republican lawmakers like Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) have argued that passing the legislation would help make up for repealing the mandate, and President Trump on Tuesday agreed to support that bill in an effort to win her vote for the tax legislation that includes mandate repeal. The Alexander–Murray bill provides two years of funding for key ObamaCare insurer payments that President Trump canceled, with the aim of bringing stability to the market. However, that is largely a separate issue from repealing the mandate. Many experts warn that without the mandate, fewer healthy people would enroll, leading to rising premiums and instability.
Trying to obtain the Senate support of Susan Coillins (R/MA) for the upcoming tax bill vote, Trump and McConnell said they would include the Murry/Alaxander Obamacare 'fix'. The CBO says that the 'fix' is not going to change anything. Millions will still lose their healthcare coverage and premiums will keep on rising if the Obamacare mandate is repealed in the tax legislation.
Yet another tax-reform 'hocus-pokus' lie by Trump and the GOP leadership is exposed by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
