White House press secretary Sean Spicer argued against Obamacare Wednesday by pointing out that some 28 million people lacked insurance coverage under the law. He made no mention of the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s estimates that tens of millions more Americans would lose coverage as a result of Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and make deep cuts to Medicaid, however.
28.2M Americans are still waiting under #Obamacare and remain uninsured. They need relief now. #RepealAndReplace pic.twitter.com/guEEOiaXDy
— Sean Spicer (@PressSec) June 28, 2017
“28.2 million Americans are still waiting under Obamacare and remain uninsured!” an infographic Spicer tweeted out stated. He appeared to be citing data from the Department of Health and Human Services that was published in February and based on polling from January-September 2016.
However, the CBO estimated Monday that Senate Republicans’ Obamacare repeal bill would result in 49 million uninsured people under age 65 by 2026, “compared with 28 million who would lack insurance that year under current law.”
So by Spicer’s own metric, Senate Republicans’ Obamacare repeal bill — which President Donald Trump has heartily endorsed — would unacceptably leave tens of millions more Americans without coverage.
Similarly, the CBO estimated in May that House Republicans’ Obamacare repeal would result in 51 million uninsured people under age 65 by 2026, versus 28 million under the status quo.
Under both bills, most of the estimated coverage losses are the result of deep proposed cuts to Medicaid, which Trump himself pledged during the presidential campaign that he would not tolerate.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that he would delay until after the July 4 recess a vote on Senate Republicans’ repeal bill, which was written in secret for weeks and released on Thursday in anticipation of a potential vote this week.
