The Congressional Budget Office will release a new estimate on how changes to the GOP Obamacare repeal bill would affect coverage and federal spending Wednesday night, according to Rep. Pete Sessions, chairman of the House Rules Committee.
The lack of a score from the CBO prompted Democrats to try to delay a key hearing in the House Rules Committee to advance the American Health Care Act to the House floor. While Sessions said the estimate was expected Wednesday night, House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said that he expects the score Wednesday night but said it would be available before the House votes on the bill Thursday.
Democrats cried foul over the lack of a score for the hearing, noting that the earlier estimate showed that 24 million people wouldn’t have insurance over the next decade.
“It strikes me as odd that we are proceeding without all the information,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. “I don’t know why we just don’t wait until we consider this bill with all the information.”
A motion to delay the hearing was voted down 7-2.
The CBO has yet to issue a score on a manager’s amendment to the bill, which included several changes to entice both moderates and conservatives.
Among the changes are including a work requirement for Medicaid and giving states the option to choose between a block grant or per capita cap for federal funding.
Sessions said that hopefully the CBO would be able to suss out the difference “between the number of people who are not covered versus being kicked off their health plan.”
“We don’t really anticipate anybody being kicked off their plan, unlike the 4.7 million people who were kicked off their plan by Obamacare,” Sessions said.
The 24 million includes people who are expected to drop coverage due to the elimination of the individual mandate or lose it through the elimination of the Medicaid expansion in 2020.
