Meet New AHCA, Same as Old AHCA

The long awaited CBO score of the new Republican health care bill is out! You’re excited, aren’t you? Without further ado, here’s the CBO’s key chart showing how much better new AHCA is than old AHCA:

As you can see, under old AHCA the number of poor with no insurance rose from 15-20 percent under Obamacare to 30-40 percent under AHCA. But under new AHCA, it’s more like 29-39 percent. Hot diggity! Here are a few other numbers:

• Old AHCA reduced the deficit by $150 billion (over ten years). New AHCA reduces the deficit by $119 billion.
• Old AHCA took away insurance from 24 million people (by 2026). New AHCA takes it away from 23 million.
• Old AHCA cut Medicaid by $839 billion (over ten years). New AHCA cuts Medicaid by $834 billion.
• Under old AHCA, a low-income 64-year-old paid an annual premium of $14,600. Under new AHCA, the premium is $16,100. On the bright side, states that take advantage of new AHCA’s permission to gut essential benefits can get that all the way down to $13,600. This compares to $1,700 under Obamacare.

Those are some mighty big changes, aren’t they? You can certainly understand why the (former) head of the Republican “moderate” caucus worked so hard to revive AHCA and make these adjustments. It’s like a whole new bill.