Obamacare Repeal to Push 32Mln Americans to Lose Health Insurance Coverage

The number of Americans unable to purchase insurance due to the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act of 2017 would rise to 32 million by the year 2026, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in a report.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The CBO estimated that average premiums for Americans would rise to 25 percent in 2018. The percentage increase would move to roughly 50 percent in 2020 and premiums would even double by 2026.

"The number of people who are uninsured would increase by 17 million in 2018 compared with the number under current law," the report stated on Wednesday. "That number would increase to 27 million in 2020, after the elimination of the ACA’s [Obamacare] expansion of eligibility for Medicaid and the elimination of subsidies for insurance purchased through the marketplaces established by the ACA, and then to 32 million in 2026."

More ominously, the CBO noted, is the expectation that approximately half of the US population would live in areas having no insurance company participation for individual plans by 2020.

The CBO noted that the lower the number of people enrolled would cause premiums to increase as a result of the absence of subsidies. By 2026, fully 75 percent of the population in the United States would live in communities where no individual coverage was provided, the CBO added.