The CBO report on the Republican's bill is in, and it isn't pretty, at least not for Republicans.
The Congressional Budget Office has concluded that under the $61 billion Republican amendment to the House health care bill, the number of uninsured Americans would increase to 52 million by 2019, but deficits would decrease by $68 billion over the 2010–2019 period. The bill could slightly reduce premiums for Americans who purchase coverage independently.
Millions of Americans would remain uninsured and continue to pay higher premiums. In fact it’s unlikely that any of the members of the Republican House Leadership would be able to find affordable insurance under their own proposal, should they chose to give up their government-sponsored plans.
In fact, only 3 million people of the nearly 48 million uninsured Americans would be covered. And in fact, by 2019, 52 million nonelderly Americans would be uninsured under the Republican plan, according to the CBO. So the Republican plan essentially reflects the status quo, barely keeping up with population growth.
Ezra has the basic comparison between the Democratic and Republican plans.
The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan. And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder. And yet it saves more money and covers more people than the blank-slate alternative proposed by John Boehner and the House Republicans. The Democrats, constrained by reality, produced a far better plan than Boehner, who was constrained solely by his political imagination and legislative skill.
Cohn has more:
By weakening or removing requirements that insurance cover certain services--everything from cancer screenings to mental health--the Republican bill would likely result in people getting insurance that covers less. That is, based on a quick canvassing of people who have read the report, the meaning of this passage:
The second source of change in average insurance premiums is changes in the average extent of coverage purchased. ... With other factors held equal, insurance policies that cover more benefits or services or have smaller copayments or deductibles have higher premiums, while policies that cover fewer benefits or services or have larger copayments or deductibles have lower premiums. Provisions in the amendment that would reduce insurance premiums by affecting the amount of coverage purchased include the State Innovations program, which would encourage states to reduce the number and extent of benefit mandates that they impose, and provisions that would allow individuals or affiliated groups to purchase insurance policies in other states that have less stringent mandates.
So, yes, the Republican health care bill will lower premiums overall. But many people in poor health will see their premiums go up. And many people will get lower premiums only because they’re getting inferior coverage. Meanwhile, more than 50 million people will have no insurance whatsoever."
Hell, even Republican House leadership has problems with the Boehner bill. This one is a total non-starter, and is in fact so bad that you have to wonder why they put it out there in the first place. This really makes them look even worse than they did when they were just obstructing, because it just proves once more that even when they try to legislate, they fail.
