When President Donald Trump said that there be "#insurance for everybody" in January to the Washington Post, nobody took him literally. But nobody thought that passing his repeal of Obamacare would mean seeing 24 million more people – yes, 24 million – without any coverage whatsoever.
And that's what the #Congressional Budget Office found this week when they took a close look at the American Heath Care Act, the Republican answer to Obama's Affordable Care Act.
Trump had promised #universal coverage for people many times, and had promised that the GOP version would give more people better coverage.
His allies and those surrounding him said similar things. But this past Sunday, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price confirmed that many more #people would be without health insurance if Republicans get their way.
The CBO report was so much worse than expected
The #Congressional Budget Office report showed us how Trump's salesmanship was just that – an attempt at an easy sell. And more noticeably, it highlighted how seven years of similar Republican arguments were not truthful.
The report also seems to suggest that the GOP is more interested in #shrinking government programs than helping people get healthcare. Many people asked on Tuesday: are the Republicans really more aligned with reducing taxes and protecting the middle and upper classes at the expense of the lower classes and the poor?
Responses to the findings were polarized
The report invited swift responses from both sides of the political spectrum, with Democrats condemning the results and Republicans asking whether the CBO’s methodology was correct and accurate. In fact, the Republicans had started to doubt the CBO's approach and accuracy before the results were announced, suggesting #GOP anxiety over the bill itself.
Since its creation four decades ago, the CBO has only ever worked in a space where the integrity and opacity of data is key. The organization has never indulged in partisan behavior, and results never been swayed or aligned to a certain side of the political scale. Entrenched neutrality is the approach at the CBO – which is why the report was so much worse than anyone thought it would be.
There was no tiptoeing around the issues in the proposed Republican bill. The results, to many, highlight how the GOP healthcare argument lacks a #human angle.
The American Health Care Act would drain $880 billion from Medicaid over a decade and channel federal tax credits away from the lower income consumers. These alterations would mean around 14 million could lose coverage in the first year, and that that number would continue to rise nearly hitting 52 million uninsured in 2026.
Yes, premiums would eventually decrease, but that doesn't really mean much when so many millions are without health coverage. The GOP has focused on the likelihood that the CBO won't have the #exact numbers right – but as Senator Lindsey Graham said, “If they’re half right, that’d still be a lot of people who are uninsured.”
The fact that Graham is concerned, and was backed by two other Republicans, is cause for concern since Republicans only have #two votes to spare to pass the bill.
