Wyden, Neal, Pallone Release Latest CBO Estimates Showing 16 Million People Will Become Uninsured from Republican Health Agenda
16 Million Will Become Uninsured Because of Republican Legislation, Including Refusal to Extend Health Care Tax Credits
Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., released a statement following a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) showing 16 million people will lose coverage from the Republican reconciliation plan, including their failure to extend premium tax credits that Americans use to buy affordable health insurance.
“The Republican health agenda is all about making it harder to get health care,” the leaders said. “Every step of the way, this abomination of a bill creates barriers and mazes designed to demoralize and discourage Americans as they try to get affordable health care. The results of this cruel system are clear: millions will lose coverage, health care costs will go up for all Americans, and tens of thousands will die.
“Everybody will be affected by the disastrous Republican bill. Despite Republican propaganda, Americans need to know that the bill’s thicket of red tape and increased out-of-pocket costs in Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act will fall especially hard on working families, including those with children, caregivers, Americans with disabilities, and those with chronic illnesses. Republicans continue to repeat lies about the devastating harms of this bill, because without those lies the only conclusion that can be reached is that this bill is morally bankrupt.
“Republicans must be held responsible for the consequences of not extending health care tax credits that middle class Americans use to buy health insurance on their own. Their bill extends hundreds of tax policies that expire at the end of the year. The omission of this policy will cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance and will raise premiums on 24 million Americans. The Republican failure to stop this premium spike is a policy choice, and it needs to be recognized as such. Between this choice and other harmful policies in their legislation, Republicans are effectively dismantling the Affordable Care Act. Americans do not want to go back to the days where health care was reserved for the healthy and the wealthy, where insurance companies had free rein to discriminate against sicker or older Americans.
The letter from CBO can be found here.
CBO’s score of H.R. 1 can be found here.
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