House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office and President Trump’s White House team had opposite responses Monday to the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the GOP health care bill.
The CBO report announced the American Health Care Act, the Republican version of the Affordable Care Act, “would reduce federal deficits by $337 billion over the 2017-2026 period.”
It also said, under the new law, “the increase in the number of uninsured people relative to the number under current law would rise to 21 million in 2020 and then to 24 million in 2026.”
Trump’s team was not at all happy with the report.
“We believe that the plan that we’re putting in place will insure more individuals than [are] currently insured,” Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price told reporters soon after the report was published. “We think that CBO simply has it wrong. … It’s just not believable.”
“We disagree strenuously,” he added, insisting the GOP proposal would, “cover more individuals at a lower cost.”
He added in reference to the CBO’s estimated 14 million uninsured people that, “it’s virtually impossible to have that number occur.”
Ryan’s office, on the other hand, sounded far more excited about the report Monday.
“This report confirms that the American Health Care Act will lower premiums and improve access to quality, affordable care,” Ryan said. “CBO also finds that this legislation will provide massive tax relief, dramatically reduce the deficit, and make the most fundamental entitlement reform in more than a generation.”
“These are things we are achieving in just the first of a three-pronged approach,” he said. “It’s important to note that this report does not take into consideration additional steps Congress and the Trump administration are taking that will further lower costs and increase choices.”
The House Speaker also addressed the criticism aimed at his proposed fixes to the ACA.
“I recognize and appreciate concerns about making sure people have access to coverage,” Ryan said. “Under Obamacare, we have seen how government-mandated coverage does not equal access to care, and now the law is collapsing. Our plan is not about forcing people to buy expensive, one-size-fits-all coverage. It is about giving people more choices and better access to a plan they want and can afford. When people have more choices, costs go down. That’s what this report shows.”
“This week, a third House committee will debate the American Health Care Act as part of an open, transparent process,” Ryan said. “We have set out a clear goal—to give every American access to quality, affordable care—and a clear plan to achieve it. Now we must keep our promise and deliver.”
On the left, the reaction to the CBO score is about as angry and indignant as you’d expect, as several pundits and politicos say the report just further proof that the GOP-led plan is a total disaster. In the world of right-leaning commentary, the reaction hasn’t been much better. The Weekly Standard’s Jay Cost speaks for most of us:
