A bill that would inject federal dollars into Obamacare would increase the deficit by more than $19 billion over a decade, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation.
The agencies project that the legislation, if passed, would increase the number of people with health insurance coverage by fewer than 500,000 in each year from 2019 through 2022, though it would lower premiums by roughly 10 percent in 2019 and by an average of 20 percent in 2020 and 2021. The premium decrease would be felt by Obamacare customers who do not receive federal subsidies to help pay for their premiums.
The analysis comes as Republicans have urged for the bill to be included as part of a long-term spending deal due Friday. Democrats, however, oppose the legislation because it contains the Hyde Amendment that prohibits federal funds from paying for abortions, with limited exceptions.
The legislation would fund insurer payments known as cost-sharing reduction payments for three years and offer $30 billion in reinsurance funds distributed evenly for three years. It includes more flexibility for states to implement changes to their healthcare systems and would allow more people to buy plans that have lower premiums and higher deductibles.
The consulting firm Oliver Wyman issued a recent report that said that premiums would fall by 40 percent if the bill were to pass. Various consumer and industry groups support the legislation, as does the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
But according to a report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, not every insurer is on board with receiving cost-sharing reduction payments. That’s because individual insurers negotiated with states so that they could structure subsidies for low-income people differently. Doing so allowed more low-income customers to receive bigger subsidies paid for by the federal government, which made their premiums less expensive.
