House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday praised the Congressional Budget Office’s score of the GOP healthcare bill, by saying it “confirms” that the bill would lead to lower health insurance premiums, and take a big chunk out of the budget deficit over 10 years.
“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.”
Democrats said the CBO score was bad because it shows 24 million more people will be without coverage after a decade. But CBO said many of those would leave because the GOP bill would mean people are no longer required to have coverage.
“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.”
Like Ryan, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy argued that the Affordable Health Care Act, which House GOP leadership released last Monday, is only the first phase of a three-step process and
“The next phases of our plan—from administrative actions taken by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price to scheduling votes on additional legislation outside of the reconciliation process—will only further reduce costs and increase access to health care,” McCarthy said in a statement.
“Unlike Obamacare, our plan does not force people to buy insurance plans they may not want or even need. The fundamental premise of the American Health Care Act is that people should be free and able to buy quality health care that suits their needs,” he continued.
Other Republicans pointed to the CBO’s inaccurate scoring of the Affordable Care Act back in 2009, which Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., noted mere minutes after the report came out.
“CBO got it wrong when the Affordable Care Act passed. They predicted it would increase coverage to 20 million people and the fact is it came in at half of that at 10 million,” Roskam, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, told Fox News. He also used a similar line as Ryan and McCarthy and claimed that the AHCA is only “part of the puzzle” and “not the whole remedy” for the healthcare system.
