Statement from the NC Justice Center: CBO shows GOP Senate Repeal-and-Run-Away Bill Would Be Disastrous

Repeal-only bill would leave 32 million uninsured, tripling uninsured rate among North Carolina children and killing 76,000 jobs

RALEIGH (July 19, 2017) — In a desperate effort to score political points after failing to agree on a replacement plan, Senate Republicans and the White House have revisited the idea of repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. The bill they’ve put forth, which was proposed and discarded previously, would devastate our nation’s health care system, economy, and North Carolinians from all walks of life.

Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its assessment about this bill, which looks much like their previous assessments of the repeal-and-delay proposal. CBO found this bill would cause 17 million Americans to immediately become uninsured in 2018; that number would increase to 32 million by 2026. Premiums would rise each year, doubling by 2026. Three-fourths of Americans would have absolutely zero health insurance companies participating in their individual insurance market whatsoever. All the while, the bill would create massive tax breaks for the wealthy, insurance carriers, and drug companies.

This bill’s impacts would extend well beyond destabilizing the insurance markets. From research modeled after the previous repeal-and-delay bill, we know the following will happen by 2019:

• One million North Carolinians would become uninsured.
• 164,000 children in our state would lose their health coverage, tripling the child uninsured rate in our state from 3.2 percent to 9.7 percent.
• Already struggling North Carolina hospitals and other health care providers would face $2.8 billion in additional uncompensated care costs.
• North Carolina would lose 76,000 jobs—the vast majority of which are in the private sector.

Only 13 percent of Americans support repealing the ACA without a replacement, and 80 percent want Republicans in Congress to negotiate with Democrats. Senators Tillis and Burr ought to lead the way on improving health care through a responsible, transparent, and bipartisan legislative process. Congress and the White House must move beyond repealing and sabotaging the Affordable Care Act, and instead give the American people what they want—bipartisan tweaks and fixes to stabilize the markets, improve affordability, and make health care more accessible.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT Brendan Riley, brendan@ncjustice.org; Julia Hawes, julia@ncjustice.org.