At Least 21 Million People Would Lose Health Care If GOP Bill Becomes Law
Because Republicans are moving so fast, this may be the only analysis we get on the Graham-Cassidy bill before the Senate votes.
Senate Republicans are racing to pass their last-ditch Obamacare repeal bill, known as Graham-Cassidy. And while they are not allowing for a formal Congressional Budget Office estimate, other studies are revealing just how catastrophic the GOP bill could be.
According to a study released Friday, the Republican bill would cause at least 21 million people to lose health coverage by 2026.
The analysis, which was conducted by the Brookings Institute, is one of the only studies that give us insight into how the Graham-Cassidy bill will impact the millions who count on Obamacare for their health care.
Republicans are aiming to vote on the bill Wednesday of next week.
In addition to eliminating the individual and employer mandates, the bill also eliminates Obamacare tax credits to make insurance more affordable for middle-class Americans and slashes Medicaid funding.
The slashed Medicaid funding would be phased out by 2026 and according to Brookings, if Congress doesn’t reauthorize funding the total uninsured would climb to 32 million.
According to the authors of the study, “This estimate likely understates the reductions in insurance coverage that would actually occur under the Graham-Cassidy legislation, particularly toward the beginning and end of the seven-year period, because it does not account for the challenges states will face in setting up new programs on the bill’s proposed timeline, the possibility that uncertainty about the program’s future will cause market turmoil toward the end of the seven-year period, or the bill’s Medicaid per capita cap and other non-expansion-related Medicaid provisions.”
