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Twenty-two million Americans are on the brink of losing health insurance over the next decade under the healthcare bill drafted by US Senate Republicans, a nonpartisan office said on Monday, an assessment that will likely make it more difficult for the already-fraught legislation to win support for speedy passage.
The Congressional Budget Office's assessment complicates the task ahead for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who must find a way to reconcile the demands of moderate Republicans concerned about people losing their insurance and conservative senators who say the bill does not do enough to repeal Obamacare.
Several moderates Republicans, including Susan Collins of Maine, have already said they could not support a bill that resulted in tens of millions of people losing their insurance.
The CBO estimated that in 2026, 49 million people would be uninsured under the Senate bill, compared with 28 million under the current law. It also estimated that the Senate bill would decrease the budget deficit by 321 billion US dollars over 2017-2026.
A group of people with disabilities was arrested for protesting the Republican healthcare bill inside the Russell Senate office building Washington, DC, US on June 22, 2017.
The CBO score is likely to amplify criticism from industry groups such as the American Hospital Association and American Medical Association, which said earlier on Monday that the Senate's bill violated the doctors' precept of " first, do no harm."
President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress have been pushing to repeal and replace Obamacare, Democratic former President Barack Obama's signature domestic legislation.
Republican leaders want to hold a vote on the bill before the July 4 recess that starts at the end of this week. Republicans have only a 52-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate, so McConnell can lose just two Republican senators, relying on Vice President Mike Pence to cast the tie-breaking vote. No Democratic senators have said they would back the bill.
