Obamacare's Gross Costs Double to $1.76 Trillion, CBO Projects.

[Teyrn]

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Oba...3/14/id/432506

The gross costs of the Obamacare law that Democrats rammed through Congress will cost $1.76 trillion over a decade — about twice the amount originally projected, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report released today.

Critics had said that the true 10-year cost of President Barack Obama’s signature legislation would wind up being much more than originally advertised at $940 billion. Democrats pushed the legislation through using untraditional accounting methodology, such as delaying full implementation of the law until 2014, The Washington Examiner reported.

Democrats underestimated the total cost so it would appear cheaper under the CBO’s standard 10-year budget window and meet Obama’s pledge that the legislation would cost “around $900 billion over 10 years,” critics contend.

The CBO’s new report extended projections from 2013 through 2022, which included the first nine years of full implementation of the law, rather than the first six years before the bill was enacted. A true 10-year estimate will be available next year.

Fewer people are expected to obtain health insurance coverage from their employers or in insurance exchanges, and more are expected to obtain coverage from Medicaid or CHIP or from nongroup or other sources, according to the CBO report. Also, more people are expected to be uninsured than originally estimated.

The new report slashes the number of nonelderly people without health insurance coverage by 30 million to 33 million in 2016 and following years. That would leave 26 million to 27 million nonelderly residents uninsured in those years.

Current estimates are that 20 million to 23 million people will receive coverage through the new insurance exchanges under Obamacare, and 16 million to 17 million additional people will be enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. A health insurance exchange is a set of state-regulated and standardized healthcare plans from which individuals may buy health insurance eligible for federal subsidies.

From 3 million to 5 million fewer people will have coverage through an employer, compared with the number under previous law, the CBO report says.

The gross cost of the coverage of expansions in 2022 of $265 billion would increase the program’s cost to $2 trillion over the first decade, the Examiner reported.

[The Lawspeaker]