Obamacare Repeal Could Suspend Insurance Policies To 18M People

With the planned repeal of Obamacare, 18 million Americans stand to lose their health insurance. This is based from the report of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

In an article published in NBC News, the CBO also reported that health insurance premiums would increase by 20 to 25 percent within the first year of the repeal. In its projection, the agency also expects another 32 million to become uninsured in a span of 10 years.

The CBO report, also published in the website of Obama Care News Updates, states: "The number of people who are uninsured would increase by 18 million in the first new plan year following enactment of the bill. Premiums in the non-group market would be roughly 20 percent to 25 percent higher than under current law."

As Congress works to abolish the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), the CBO expects the cost of health insurance to increase every year if no replacement plan is put in place.  The projections indicated in the report were based on the repeal law enacted by the House of Representatives in 2015.

As if the increase in premiums is not enough, the CBO report also revealed that the elimination of the Medicaid eligibility and subsidies provided for by the ACA would add another 27 to 32 million without health insurance by 2026.

However, the CBO believes that some of the more popular provisions of Obamacare would be retained. This includes the measure that prevents health insurance companies from putting a limit on their coverage as well as the feature that allows adult children to remain on their parents' policies until their 26^th birthday.

As reported by the website of Matometrix, the Affrordable Care Act was designed to provide health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans by establishing a new non-group market and by expanding Medicaid coverage. To make it more affordable, the ACA offered Federal subsidies to help people defray the cost of their insurance premiums. With the proposed repeal, such subsidies would be removed which could result to market collapse.