The Congressional Budget Office offered their nonpartisan outlook Monday for the Republican’s American Health Care Act. In short, it does not look good.
The CBO revealed that they believed approximately 52 million people would be uninsured by the year 2026. If it is not repealed, the office projects that the Affordable Care Act would potentially leave 28 million people uninsured at that time, which is 24 million less people.
Not only is widespread coverage a serious problem that’s not fixed by the new Republican bill or the ACA, but the cost of getting health insurance is projected to skyrocket for the elderly. According to the CBO, health insurance providers will be free to charge elderly people more for their coverage. In addition to this, an average 64-year-old would have to pay most of their insurance premiums, compared to the projection of just a fraction of the cost under Obamacare.
The CBO went on to say that they believed average premiums for people buying insurance on their own would end up being 15 or 20 percent higher in 2018 and 2019 than it would have been under the current healthcare system. In the long haul, premiums are expected to drop 10 percent by 2026.
One of the few positives that was offered on Monday was the fact that an estimated $337 billion dollars would be saved in repealing Obamacare for the American Health Care Act.
Donald Trump and the Republican Party promised the American people a health care system that would be better than the one put in place by Barack Obama in 2009. So far, their promises have been empty. This would have been a perfect opportunity for the right to pick up steam and show the country that they really want to fix the problems facing most Americans today.
According to the Edison Research for the National Election Pool, exit polls showed that 53 percent of those who were 65 years or older voted for Donald Trump in the November election. One can imagine that a good amount of those voters put their hopes for a better healthcare system in their vote — a system that would actually satisfy their needs.
Obamacare is getting expensive for many who were already on fixed incomes. In some cases, elderly people are even forced to stop paying for their health insurance because they simply could not afford it. What they want is something that should be easily accessible — real, affordable healthcare.
There is presently a laundry list of problems with Obamacare. From the actuality that deductibles are rising, to the fact that seven states only offer one insurer that has insurance through the ACA, it is clear the people need to see change. While the ACA may have seemed like a good idea at the time, it has shown its faults.
The Republicans need to do better than this if they wish to keep the majority for the next four years. Rolling out bills that are almost immediately seen as a death wish do not seem to be the answer to anyone’s problems.
In fact, there have already been a few Republicans that have spoken out against the proposed bill. Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen came out and said that she could not support the Republican bill after the CBO showed how many people would lose coverage. Other representatives who have spoken out against the AHCA are Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Leonard Lance of New Jersey.
The bottom line here is this — the Republican Party needs to go back to the drawing board and figure out which direction they want to take healthcare in this country. Do they want to save a lot of money and leave over 50 million people uninsured, worried about their future? Or will they put more money into covering the masses? Only time will tell.
