The cost of repealing healthcare reform

I’ll give some credit to Boehner – he had the CBO cost his bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. But the news that comes back is not good at all for the Republicans. Over the next decade, repeal would add $240 billion to the deficit. Funny how a party that claims to care about the deficit fails its first test. What about premiums? In the individual market, they would a bit lower, but only because “the average insurance policy in this market would cover a smaller share of enrollees’ costs for health care and a slightly narrower range of benefits” – in other words, because the benefits are crappier and many are excluded because of pre-existing conditions. To make it worse, many will pay more for this crappier package because the subsidies have been eliminated. And in the large-employer market (where most people get their insurance today), premiums would actually rise a bit, while Cantor and his minions are going around saying the exact opposite. Probably the most depression change of all – 32 million fewer people will have health insurance. And of course, the CBO cost estimates are strictly limited. How do you put a cost on nearly half a million people dying over a ten year period simply because they lack health insurance? How do you put a cost on the millions of families who suffer grievously because they lack health insurance?