Here’s some good news: the latest report from the CBO has reduced its estimate of the cost of Obamacare. This is due partly to a slight decrease in the number of people CBO expects to be covered, but mostly due a lower estimate of the cost of insurance premiums. Thanks to this, federal subsidies are estimated at $209 billion less over a ten-year period, and the cost of CHIP and Medicaid is estimated at $73 billion less. However, there are also reductions in expected revenues from Obamacare’s excise tax, so the net reduction amounts to $142 billion over ten years. The table below tells the story.
Sarah Kliff has more details here. As she notes, this isn’t the first time CBO has reduced its estimate of how much Obamacare will cost: “The CBO is projecting the federal government will spend $600 billion less on health care than the agency expected in 2010, when it wasn’t counting even a dollar of the spending in Obamacare. That’s simply an amazing fact.” Yep.
