The White House’s Own Study Projects 26 Million More Americans Would Lose Coverage Under TrumpCare

Yesterday, the big news coming out of Washington, D.C., was a study released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finding that 24 million additional Americans would find themselves without health care should the GOP’s proposed plan be adopted as is. That study states that 14 million would lose health care in the next year, and 24 million will find themselves without coverage by 2026. That would bring the total uninsured to 52 million in nine years’ time, suggesting that implementing the act would almost double the number of uninsured in America.

It was also concluded by the CBO that as the number of uncovered American rose, so too would premiums.

Statistics blog 538 showed graphically how they expected premiums to rise should the replacement plan pass.

Just as Republicans went into spin mode, suggesting the actual legislation is just “step one”...

...the news got worse.

Late last night, POLITICO reports that a study from the White House, performed by the Office of Management and Budget, projects an even bleaker outcome. That research projects 26 million uninsured in the next decade versus the CBO’s 24 million.

The White House was quick to discredit those figures, stating that the study was undertaken to determine only how the projections would look based on the CBO’s criteria, and didn’t necessarily reflect actual impact. White House communications director Michael Dubke said, “This is not an analysis of the bill in any way whatsoever. This is OMB trying to project what CBO’s score will be using CBO’s methodology.”

Nonetheless, the White House’s even more pessimistic findings suggest that 17 million would lose Medicaid coverage, 6 million would lose individual coverage, and 3 million would lose coverage through employer-provided plans.

As it stands, the GOP’s replacement plan is championed by almost no one, drafted amid blustery promises of repealing Obamacare, but supported by few Republicans and virtually no Democrats. Moderates are concerned about the loss of coverage as reported in the CBO and OMB studies, and conservatives feel it doesn’t go far enough in reducing taxpayer burden.

No matter if the number of additional uninsured is 24 million, 26 million, or just 3 million, any decrease in coverage is going to result in more headlines like this:

As it stands with these early numbers, it’s unlikely to pass, although the OMB’s bespoke study, still pending, would likely paint a rosier picture of the legislation’s effects.