WASHINGTON (AP) – The health care bill Republicans have pushed through the House would leave 23 million additional people uninsured in 2026 compared to President Barack Obama’s health care law, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The original forecast on the bill earlier this year said that it would leave 24 million fewer Americans insured over that same period of time, that 10-year period. Letting states get federal waivers so insurers could charge higher premiums for people with pre-existing medical conditions would mean those consumers would “ultimately be unable to purchase” comprehensive coverage at prices comparable to today’s costs, “if they could purchase at all.”

The report was the budget office’s first analysis of the GOP health care overhaul that the House narrowly approved this month with only Republican votes. Now, the caveat of course, Audie, is they say premiums would be lower because of the changes Republicans made to the bill that would give states options to get waivers from the current law mandates on what insurance plans have to cover as well as how pre-existing conditions are covered.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts that in the next decade, the new health care bill recently approved by the U.S. House of Representatives will reduce the federal deficit by $120 billion and leave 23 million more Americans uninsured, as opposed to current law.