White House spokesman Sean Spicer on Tuesday rejected reports that the Trump administration was anticipating a high number of insurance losses under the Republican healthcare bill.
Instead, he said the White House’s estimate of 26 million more people without insurance was a prediction of what the Congressional Budget Office would estimate, and does not reflect expectations within the White House.
On Monday night, Politico reported that the White House was estimating 26 million more uncovered people over the next decade, compared to CBO’s estimate of 24 million. But Spicer said that is a “misleading” description of the White House paper.
“This story is totally misleading,” he wrote on Twitter. “The projection was an estimate of what CBO would conclude. It was not a WH analysis.”
Spicer also tweeted out at CNN’s Chris Cuomo, and asked him to “please don’t cite a false and misleading story.”
This story is totally misleading The projection was an estimate of what CBO would conclude. It was not a WH analysis https://t.co/zSAqj55HC7
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 14, 2017
cc @ChrisCuomo – please don’t cite a false and misleading story https://t.co/8XnQqV5ag2
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 14, 2017
CBO’s projection was highlighted by Democrats who argued the GOP plan would leave millions of people without health insurance.
But the CBO report indicated many would voluntarily drop their health plan under the GOP bill, since that bill would eliminate the current requirement that people buy insurance. The report said most of the 14 million people who would be without coverage by 2018 would be in that position by choice.
Millions more would not be covered by 2026 because the GOP would stop the expansion of Medicaid.
