CBO: 4 Million Will Lose Employer Health Insurance Under GOP Plan
GOP Health Bill Is So Awesome That Even 4 Million People With Employer Health Insurance Will Lose Coverage.
A little-noticed aspect of the Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Republican health care bill promises to be a major problem for people who get insurance through their employer.
While most of the attention has been focused on the number of people who would lose coverage through Medicaid and the individual markets, the CBO found that the 4 million people who have employer-provided insurance in 2018 if the Republican bill becomes law.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office noted that the drop in employer-based coverage would be a consequence of two items: the requirement to have health insurance and the requirement that most large employers provide it.
“Under current law, the prospect of paying the employer mandate penalty tips the scale for some businesses and causes them to decide to offer health insurance to their employees. Thus, eliminating that penalty would cause some employers to not offer health insurance,” the CBO wrote.
“Similarly, the demand for insurance among employees is greater under current law because some employees want employment-based coverage so that they can avoid paying the individual mandate penalty. Eliminating that penalty would reduce such demand and would cause some employers to not offer coverage or some employees to not enroll in coverage they were offered.”
The new analysis confirms that the Senate bill would cause even more people with employer-provided plans to lose coverage than the House bill.
The CBO projected that 15 million more people would become uninsured by 2018 under the Senate bill, with a total of 22 million people becoming uninsured over the next 10 years.
[image via screengrab]
