This week, CNN’s Jake Tapper covers some of the reasons to doubt Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s claim that “nobody will be worse off financially” under the GOP health care plan.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the American Health Care Act shows there will be winners and losers under the plan financially. The CBO report estimates that 24 million fewer Americans would be insured under the GOP bill in 2026, as compared with current law. Some would choose not to have insurance, but others would find themselves without health care that they could have had under the Affordable Care Act.
The CBO estimates that millions of Americans would not have health insurance because they were no longer eligible for the Medicaid expansion, they could no longer afford to buy insurance on the individual market, or their employer would no longer offer insurance to them.
For example, because the Republican plan phases out the ACA’s expansion of the Medicaid insurance program, the CBO expects that 14 million fewer Americans would have Medicaid coverage in 2026 that they otherwise would have had under current law.
Older Americans are at risk because the Republican plan, beginning in 2018, would allow insurers to charge them up to five times more than younger people — an increase from three times as much as younger ones under current law. And while the GOP plan would provide older individuals with more financial help to pay for insurance than younger people, CBO says that the new tax credit structure, which would begin in 2020, will not be enough to offset the premium increases for older individuals.
A more detailed explanation is available on our website, where other videos from our fact-checking collaboration with CNN’s “State of the Union” also can be found.