The U.S. Senate's Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017 would leave 15 million more Americans uninsured a year after its implementation, 19 million by 2020, and 22 million by 2026, according to a report published June 26 by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Although the Senate bill represents a slight improvement over the U.S. House of Representative's American Health Care Act (AHCA), which in May the CBO found would leave 23 million uninsured by 2026, it would still have dire consequences compared to current law, the CBO said.
"By 2026, an estimated 49 million people would be uninsured, compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law," the CBO said.
The legislation would reduce the federal deficit over the period of 2017 to 2026 by $321 billion, $202 billion more than estimated net savings from House bill. The savings would come from reductions in Medicaid spending and from changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's (ACA) individual insurance subsidies.
Other effects of the bill would include the following:
- Medicaid cuts total $772 billion (compared with $834 billion for the House version).
- Eliminating the ACA's subsidies for individual health insurance in 2020 would save $541 billion (compared with the House bill's $665 billion).
- Average premiums for individual plans would be about 20% higher in 2018 than under current law, due to the elimination of the ACA's penalty for not having insurance.
- In 2019, insurers would be required to impose a six-month waiting period before coverage would start for people whose health insurance had lapsed for at least 63 days within the past year.
In addition, insurers would charge older people premiums up to five times higher than those charged to younger people, unless a state set a different limit, the CBO said.
