CBO on Healthcare Reform Repeal - You're Screwed
The Congressional Budget Office has a preliminary letter out on “H.R. 2 To repeal the job-killing health care law and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.” Wonderful title to the bill isn’t it? So what does the CBO say?
As a result of changes in direct spending and revenues, CBO expects that enacting H.R. 2 would probably increase federal budget deficits over the 2012–2019 period by a total of roughly $145 billion
And what about after the first ten years?
Relative to current law, enacting H.R. 2 would, CBO estimates, increase federal budget deficits in the decade following 2019; similarly, the legislation would increase budget deficits in the decade following 2021 and in subsequent years.
The CBO goes on to to point out 32 million fewer people will have health insurance, and this don’t look good as far as value for your dollar.
In particular, if H.R. 2 was enacted, premiums for health insurance in the individual market would be somewhat lower than under current law, mostly because the average insurance policy in this market would cover a smaller share of enrollees’ costs for health care and a slightly narrower range of benefits. The effects of those differences would be offset in part by other factors that would tend to raise premiums in the individual market if PPACA was repealed; for example, insurers would probably incur higher administrative costs per policy and enrollees would tend to be less healthy, leading to higher average costs for their health care. Although premiums in the individual market would be lower, on average, under H.R. 2 than under current law, many people would end up paying more for health insurance— because under current law, the majority of enrollees purchasing coverage in that market would receive subsidies via the insurance exchanges, and H.R. 2 would eliminate those subsidies.
Premiums for employment-based coverage obtained through large employers would be slightly higher under H.R. 2 than under current law, reflecting the net impact of many relatively small changes. Premiums for employment-based coverage obtained through small employers might be slightly higher or slightly lower (reflecting uncertainty about the impact of the enacted legislation on premiums in that market).
So if the Republicans get their way and this repeal bill is passed we get larger deficits, absolutely no savings will be seen. So much for fiscal responsibility. Less people will have insurance, and if your premiums do go down it will be because your insurer is covering less leaving more for you to pay out of pocket.