Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price claimed that the administration does not believe anyone will lose their health coverage despite independent estimates warning that as many as 15 million may lose insurance as a result of the GOP’s proposed Obamacare repeal.
In an interview with MSNBC Friday, Price insisted, “We don’t want anybody to lose their health coverage or their healthcare. We don’t believe that individuals will lose coverage at all, so long as they’re able to select the kind of plan that they want for themselves and for their family.”
Price attacked Obamacare as forcing people to buy plans that are not good fits and costly, despite the fact that Obamacare provided subsidies to cover the costs that are much, much larger than the tax credits proposed in the GOP replacement plan.
“They may be moved from a plan that they currently have to a plan that’s much more desirable for them to have,” Price said.
“We want to make certain that the transition timeline for this works for everybody,” he added. “We want to make certain that nobody falls through the cracks.”
The problem with Price’s argument is that it’s all based on hypotheticals without any real numbers to back them up. The bipartisan Congressional Budget Office has yet to score the proposal, which means it’s unclear how much more the plan would cost and how many people would lose coverage.
According to an independent analysis by the Brookings Institution, the CBO is expected to estimate that 15 million or more will lose insurance if the GOP scraps the individual mandate in Obamacare.
Brookings predicts that “at least 15 million” could lose coverage under the GOP health plan.
— Kyle Griffin March 10, 2017
