Millions to lose coverage under GOP bill, Congress' analyst says; Hutchinson weighs in

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, at a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill, presents his explanation of the GOP’s long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, at a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill, presents his explanation of the GOP’s long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

6:15 P.M. UPDATE:

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says a budget analysis of the Republican health care plan underscores the need for Congress to take a second look at the proposal and concerns he's raised about it.

The Republican governor on Monday repeated concerns that the House GOP bill to replace the federal health law will shift costs to the states and not provide Arkansas the flexibility it needs. Hutchinson said he's hopeful for changes to address those concerns as the bill moves through the U.S. House.

More than 300,000 people are on Arkansas' hybrid Medicaid expansion under the federal health law.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

EARLIER:

WASHINGTON — Fourteen million Americans would lose coverage next year under House Republican legislation remaking the nation's health care system, and that figure would grow to 24 million by 2026, Congress' nonpartisan budget analysts projected Monday.

The report by the Congressional Budget Office flies in the face of President Donald Trump's aim of "insurance for everybody," and he has been assailing the credibility of the CBO in advance of the release. Administration officials quickly took strong issue with it.

It also undercuts a central argument that he and other Republicans have cited for swiftly rolling back former President Barack Obama's health care overhaul: that the health insurance markets created under the 2010 law are unstable and about to implode. The congressional experts said that largely would not be the case and the market for individual health insurance policies "would probably be stable in most areas either under current law or the [GOP] legislation."

[INTERACTIVE: Compare new health care proposal with Affordable Care Act]

Even though Republican tax credits would be less generous than those under "Obamacare," the combination of those credits and other changes to lower premiums would attract enough healthy people to stabilize markets under the new plan, the report said.

In a talking point embraced by Republicans, the budget office concluded that the GOP measure would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the coming decade. That's largely because the legislation would cut Medicaid and eliminate subsidies Obama's law provides millions of people who buy coverage.

The budget office attributed the projected increases in uninsured Americans to the GOP bill's elimination of tax penalties for people who don't buy insurance, its changes in federal subsidies for people who buy policies and its curbing of Medicaid, the federal-state program that helps low-income people buy coverage.

By 2026, the office estimated, a total of 52 million people would lack insurance — including 28 million already expected to lack coverage under Obama's statute.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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