Study: New repeal bill would leave 21 million more without insurance

Source: The Hill




BY JESSIE HELLMANN - 09/22/17 12:09 PM EDT

The Senate GOP’s latest ObamaCare repeal bill would reduce the number of people with insurance coverage by at least 21 million by 2026, according to a new study released Friday. The analysis, completed by the left-leaning Brookings Institute, comes as Senate Republicans move toward a vote on their bill next week.

The legislation advanced by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) would repeal the individual and employer mandate and eliminate ObamaCare's tax credits and Medicaid expansion. Funding would be converted into block grants that states could use to create their own health care systems.

After 2026, the block grants would end unless Congress reauthorizes funding. If the funding isn’t reauthorized, the Brookings report says 32 million fewer people would likely have insurance.
The group says its calculations likely understate that number of people who would be left without insurance in the program’s first seven years, though it acknowledges the prediction is difficult since it is unclear how each state would use the block grant funding.

“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,” the authors wrote.

Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/351912-study-new-repeal-bill-would-leave-21-million-more-without-insurance