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Obamacare Repeal Price Tag: $353B
June 20, 2015
Owen Davis
Posted with permission from International Business Times
A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis found that
repealing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare or the
ACA, would likely leave 19 million Americans uninsured by 2016
and add some $353 billion to the federal deficit over ten years.
This analysis
-- the first such study since the major provisions of Obamacare came
into effect in 2014 -- complicates Republican efforts to roll back
the president's landmark healthcare reforms. The last time the
nonpartisan CBO considered the effects of the ACA's repeal, in 2012,
it estimated added deficits of $109 billion.
Congressional Republicans complained previously about the way the
CBO came to these numbers. Earlier this year, Republicans named
Keith Hall to run the CBO and called for a different methodology of
computing budget impact. Known as dynamic scoring, the computation
takes into account macroeconomic effects stemming from policy
changes.
Under that method, the CBO still found deficits accruing to $137
billion over the next decade.
The news also strikes a blow at one of the leading ways
Republicans had hoped to do away with Obamacare. Under a
congressional tactic called
reconciliation, the GOP could overcome a Democratic filibuster
to repeal provisions of the ACA. But for reconciliation to apply,
changes must be deficit-neutral. A $137 billion price tag
rules the maneuver out.
But Republicans had something to latch on to in the report as
well. The economic effects of repealing the ACA would lead to an
estimated 0.7 percent increase in output, largely because the bill
provides incentives for some people to work less.
"This law acts as an anchor on our economy by dragging down
employment and reducing labor force participation," said Mike Enzi,
(R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Largely steering
clear of the deficit effects related to repealing the ACA, Enzi said
the CBO report "does show that repealing this law will boost
nationwide employment and grow the economy."
The Obama administration
announced earlier this year that provisions in Obamacare had
added more than 16 million people to the ranks of the insured.
States that elected to expand their Medicaid coverage under the bill
saw their uninsured rate drop more steeply than those that declined.
But the administration is anxiously awaiting the upcoming
decision in
King v. Burwell, a Supreme Court case that could endanger
subsidies in 36 states. Hinging on a few words in the 2,700-page
bill, the Obamacare challenge could put millions of Americans at
risk of losing health coverage. A decision in that case is expected
in the coming weeks.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/repealing-obamacare-will-add-353-billion-to-the-federal-deficit-study/