Campaign Action
As of now, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will force his unhappy caucus to vote on a motion next week to proceed to some version of Obamacare repeal or Trumpcare replacement. It's unclear as of now whether that will be a reboot of the 2015 repeal bill, or a go at the futile Better Care Reconciliation Act, what they euphemistically call a "replacement" for Obamacare. If they decide to go with repeal, then they won't be able to hide from this: a very bad CBO score.
CBO and JCT estimate that enacting the legislation would affect insurance coverage and premiums primarily in these ways:
- The number of people who are uninsured would increase by 17 million in 2018, compared with the number under current law. That number would increase to 27 million in 2020, after the elimination of the ACA’s expansion of eligibility for Medicaid and the elimination of subsidies for insurance purchased through the marketplaces established by the ACA, and then to 32 million in 2026.
- Average premiums in the nongroup market (for individual policies purchased through the marketplaces or directly from insurers) would increase by roughly 25 percent—relative to projections under current law—in 2018. The increase would reach about 50 percent in 2020, and premiums would about double by 2026.
In CBO and JCT’s estimation, under this legislation, about half of the nation’s population would live in areas having no insurer participating in the nongroup market in 2020 because of downward pressure on enrollment and upward pressure on premiums. That share would continue to increase, extending to about three-quarters of the population by 2026.
This essentially reiterates the analysis the CBO did back in January, with 1 million less losing insurance from that analysis. A million here, a million there—and pretty soon you're talking about people dying.
Make Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump angry. Keep calling your Senators at (202) 224-3121, and tell them DON’T REPEAL OBAMACARE. After the all, tell us how it went.