President Donald Trump rode to the White House making big promises on health care — pledges that he is now in serious danger of breaking. Let’s look at how the president’s words on the campaign trail stack up against what we know today. In addition to Trump’s comments on the stump, his administration has spent weeks raising expectations on its Obamacare replacement.
Among the claims: The Republican plan would cover more people, reduce their premiums and costs, avoid cutting Medicaid, and leave no one worse off than under the former president’s signature achievement. So now that the House GOP’s American Health Care Act (AHCA) is here, how do these pledges look? Not good, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released on Monday. The report found the House plan — which the Trump administration has thrown its support behind — would cause millions to lose insurance and raise costs for vulnerable populations.
The White House pushed back against the report, claiming the findings were not accurate, but some independent analysts have made similar predictions. “We don’t want anyone who currently has insurance to not have insurance,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in January. The House bill would fall far short of these promises, according to the CBO. By the agency’s estimate, 14 million fewer people would be insured in 2018 versus current law and a whopping 24 million fewer people would have insurance in 2026.
