Repeal Would Cost $230B Over Next Decade, Congressional Budget Office Says

Repealing healthcare reform, which the House plans to vote on next Wednesday, would raise the federal deficit by about $230 billion over the next decade and leave 32 million more Americans uninsured, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office.

In a 10-page letter to Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), the CBO said its preliminary estimate found repeal would cost $145 billion by 2019 and $230 billion by 2021, and then continue adding to the deficit because several money-saving and revenue-raising provisions would be dropped.

Savings and revenues under the law include permanently reducing the growth of Medicare payments, imposing an excise tax on high-priced insurance plans, taxing individuals and families with relatively high incomes and making other changes in the federal tax code, Medicare, Medicaid and other programs.

House Republicans dismissed the CBO projection, saying that it relied on flawed assumptions provided by Democrats. According to the Hill, the Heritage Foundation said the CBO failed to include the cost of the physician fee fix, may underestimate the higher cost of subsidies as employers drop coverage and assumes savings from Medicare cuts and the CLASS Act insurance program that Democrats have "double-counted."

Meanwhile, David Cutler, a healthcare economist who advised President Obama's 2008 campaign, is about to release a paper claiming a repeal would have harmful effects on healthcare prices and jobs.

Read the CBO letter to the Speaker of the House.

Read more coverage of efforts to repeal healthcare reform:

- House Sets Jan. 12 for Vote to Repeal Reform Law

- Republicans Plan to Add to Deficit in Repeal of Reform

- 15 Benefits of Healthcare Reform Listed by Administration Before Repeal Vote

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