This blog was last updated on June 26, 2021
The Congressional Budget Office has handed down its report on last week’s discussion draft of the Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017.
By the CBO’s estimate, the Senate bill would result in an additional 22 million Americans being uninsured over the next 10 years – on top of the current estimated 28 million who are either going without insurance or are exempt from the individual mandate – if it were to be signed into law. The bill would also reduce the federal deficit by $321 billion over the next decade.
In the wake of the CBO report, there are still four Republican Senators (two of whom hail from blue states) who are solid “no” votes on the bill in its current state. Republicans can only afford to lose two Senators; as such, this bill will likely not be brought up for a vote until it is redrafted in a way that will satisfy both the conservative and moderate Republican detractors.
