The White House’s CBO Blues

Published March 14, 2017 9:00am ET



The Congressional Budget Office is finally out with its analysis of the Trump-backed American Health Care Act, and the results are, well, not great, Bob! The big headline, and the big headache for the White House, is the estimate that in less than a decade 24 million fewer people would have insurance than under current law. Even worse, up to 14 million could lose health insurance next year—a gift-wrapped talking point for Democrats.

It won’t be an entirely fair talking point. My colleague Chris Deaton points out that when the government stops mandating Americans buy insurance, as the GOP plan proposes, a lot of people will opt not to buy insurance at all—particularly young people with low medical costs. This has long been a Republican principle in the Obamacare era: Americans should be able to make their own choices, in a more competitive market, when buying health insurance.

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