Supreme Court Decision Will Decrease Cost of Health Care Law, Budget Office Says
A section of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Medicaid provisions of the health care law will save the federal government an estimated $84 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The June decision upheld the law’s Medicaid expansion but said the federal government could not withdraw existing Medicaid funds from states that refuse to go along with it. Original predictions said 33 million uninsured people will gain coverage under the law, but the number is now estimated to be 30 million, the CBO says. The New York Times, the Washington Post and the Associated Press have stories on the report.
The report predicted six million fewer people will be insured by Medicaid than originally envisioned as states refuse to go along with the full expansion. About half of those people will be covered, however, by subsidized health insurance exchanges.
The CBO also said the health care law’s spending cuts and tax increases will likely reduce the deficit, while repealing the law would increase the deficit by $109 billion in the next decade.
