A new analysis of Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump's healthcare reform plan shows it would nearly double the number of Americans without health insurance.
Mr. Trump's plan, "Healthcare Reform to Make America Great Again," has two major components. First, Mr. Trump wants to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with several new policies. Second, he wants to convert Medicaid to a block grant program.
The analysis, from bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, found Mr. Trump's plan to repeal and replace the ACA would cost about $270 billion over 10 years, and that figure accounts for estimates of faster economic growth. Without factoring in effects on the economy, the price to repeal and replace jumps to $500 billion.
With current policies in place, 27 million Americans will lack health insurance coverage in 2018, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office. Fully repealing the ACA would increase that number by another 22 million. Using previous CBO estimates, the CRFB said Mr. Trump's replacement plan would only cover 5 percent of those 22 million people, meaning about 21 million would lose insurance coverage.
The CRFB said block granting could lead to a wide range of savings, but more details are needed to evaluate that portion of Mr. Trump's plan. The plan calls for converting Medicaid into block grants, but it does not include details on how big the block grants would be.
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