The Trump administration immediately denounced the Congressional Budget Office conclusions.
Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, suggested the report offered an incomplete picture because it did not take into account regulatory steps he intends to take, as well as other legislation that Republicans plan as part of their multistep strategy to repeal and replace the health law, according to US Congressional Budget Office Report.
On Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said “we disagree strenuously with the report that was put out.”
He said it was “virtually impossible” to have 14 million people lose coverage in 2018.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and JCT estimate that enacting the American healthcare administration would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the coming decade and increase the number of people who are uninsured by 24 million in 2026 relative to current law.
The largest savings would come from reductions in outlays for Medicaid and from the elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA’s) subsidies for nongroup health insurance. The largest costs would come from repealing many of the changes the ACA made to the Internal Revenue Code—including an increase in the Hospital Insurance payroll tax rate for high-income taxpayers, a surtax on those taxpayers’ net investment income, and annual fees imposed on health insurers—and from the establishment of a new tax credit for health insurance
The American Healthcare administration Act, as Republicans call their bill, was already facing widespread criticism from health care providers, some conservatives and a united Democratic Party. Next year, it said, the number of uninsured Americans would be 14 million higher than expected under current law, report said.
The Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2017 directed the House Committees on Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce to develop legislation to reduce the deficit.
The effects of the American Health Care Act
The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) have produced an estimate of the budgetary effects of the American Health Care Act, which combines the pieces of legislation approved by the two committees pursuant to that resolution. In consultation with the budget committees, CBO used its March 2016 baseline with adjustments for subsequently enacted legislation, which underlies the resolution, as the benchmark to measure the cost of the legislation.
Congressional Budget Office is the official nonpartisan scorekeeper of legislation on Capitol Hill, and its projections on the impact of policy proposals can determine whether they have the political momentum to pass the House and Senate. But they are rarely a surprise, and both parties had telegraphed in recent days how they thought the score would turn out.
Democrats had criticized Republicans for advancing their legislation through two key committees without a cost projection from CBO.
For 42 years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has earned congressional and public respect by providing neutral, nonpartisan estimates of costs and effects of pending legislation, including analyses of alternative policy options. It has a long-established tradition of able leadership and highly qualified, hard-working staff. It is a valuable resource for Congress that both parties need.
Congress healthcare administration created the CBO during the constitutional crises that emerged when President Richard Nixon refused to spend funds that had been appropriated by Congress and signed by him. Outrage at executive overreach prompted Congress to pass the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974, which reestablished Congress as an equal partner with the executive branch in deciding the country’s fiscal and legislative policies.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that provides budget and economic information to Congress.
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