In a letter to Senate HELP (Health Education Labor and Pensions) Committee Chairman Ted Kennedy, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has concluded that current proposals by Congressional Democrats will significantly increase the federal deficit over the next decade and will fall far short of providing universal access to healthcare for all Americans. Preliminary CBO analysis of Kennedy’s Affordable Health Choices Act finds:
According to that assessment, enacting the proposal would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1.0 trillion over the 2010–2019 period. Once the proposal was fully implemented, about 39 million individuals would obtain coverage through the new insurance exchanges.
At the same time, the number of people who had coverage through an employer would decline by about 15 million (or roughly 10 percent), and coverage from other sources would fall by about 8 million, so the net decrease in the number of people uninsured would be about 16 million.
Translation: Under the Affordable Health Choice Act, the implementation of healthcare reform aimed at providing universal healthcare will result in 36 million Americans left uninsured despite unprecedented increases in government intervention into the healthcare industry. Perhaps most troubling in the CBO’s findings are projected losses of coverage for those already receiving federal assistance through Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Plan).
According to the letter to Kennedy, CBO estimates additional costs as the bill continues to take shape as this analysis does not take into account a government financed public-option insurance plan which would increase the number of insured but also significantly increase the overall cost of reform.
While Democrats vow to charge on with healthcare reform and the White House has not budged from an October 2009 deadline for legislation, Republicans quickly went on the offensive. In a speech on the floor of the Senate, minority leader Mitch McConnell cited the CBO report.
Preliminary estimates for this flawed legislative proposal are staggering. Just yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office released an estimate of just part of the HELP Committee bill. Focusing on just this one section, the CBO determined the bill will spend $1.3 trillion over 10 years, even though 37 million people would still be left without health insurance.
And this isn’t even a complete evaluation of the bill. Large proposals that will have a significant impact on the cost such as a Medicaid expansion and a government run plan have not even been factored in. Moreover, according to the details of this HELP Committee plan, a newly-created health care exchange would result in 15 million Americans losing the employer coverage they currently have — further evidence that if you like what you have, you may well lose it under a government-run plan.
Tags: Affordable Health Choices Act, Children's Health Insurance Plan, Congressional Budget Office, Democrats, healthcare reform, HELP Committee, Medicaid, Mitch McConnell, public-option, Republicans, Ted Kennedy
