Tipsheet

CBO: Nixing Obamacare Subsidies Will Raise Premiums And Increase The Deficit

President Trump said he would pull Obamacare’s cost-sharing subsidies, a decision that, according to a CBO analysis, would cause an increase of 20 percent in the next year, and in the course of 10 years, increase the deficit by $194 billion. 

According to a CBO prediction, insurers selling Obamacare would not be accessible to 5 percent of Americans due to areas they live in over the next year, but by 2020, insurers will cover “most markets,” according to Politico. Health plans may stop being involved with Obamacare if the president follows through with his plan to drop the payment. 

In 2014, House Republicans accused former President Obama of illegally funding the subsidies without the approval of Congress, filing an ongoing lawsuit.

While President Trump hasn’t decided to continue pushing the lawsuit against the Obama administration, multiple Democrat state attorneys have gotten involved, the court giving them permission because they said that they were under-represented by Trump. 

The CBO study states under the header, “Effects on Health Insurance Coverage,” that “the number of people uninsured under this policy would be about 1 million higher than under the baseline in 2018 but about 1 million lower in each year starting in 2020.” 

The Affordable Care Act, miserably failing, has injured the individual insurance market and forced business owners to fire employees due to the unaffordable costs of the insurance. Americans were not able to keep their doctors -- in spite of the former president's promise, "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period." He later had to revise: "what we said was you can keep it if it hasn't changed since the law passed." 

The subsidies make Obamacare plans more affordable for low-income people -- something insurers depend upon. In light of the dropped funding, insurers do not have to decide if they will participate in the “Obamacare market” for the year 2018 till late September.