GOP rep disputes CBO score on healthcare bill

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) voiced skepticism Friday about new Congressional Budget Office scoring of the GOP’s revised plan for repealing and replacing ObamaCare.

“On something like this, I can’t wrap my head around how they think we’re losing 14 million people in a year when there’s no change,” he said Friday on CNN’s “New Day.”

The score from the nonpartisan CBO, which was updated Thursday following changes to the bill, estimates that 14 million more people will be without insurance next year under the Republican plan, with a total of 24 million people without insurance in a decade.

But Collins, a top Trump ally who backs the bill, cast doubt on the estimates.

“They’re saying we’re going to lose 14 million people next year,” Collins told host Chris Cuomo. “[But] there’s no change on the exchanges, no change in Medicaid expansion, no change whatsoever.

{mosads}”Now how do you get your arms around something that says we’re losing 14 million people when there isn’t even a single change?”

Collins added that the CBO’s projected 2018 health insurance coverage losses are likely the result of ObamaCare.

“So I guess under ObamaCare then they’re somehow saying we’re going to lose 14 million people next year,” he said.

The CBO on Thursday released a new score for the American Health Care Act, a bill Republican leaders are struggling to find support for in the House.

The score found that this version of the healthcare plan contains significantly less deficit reduction than the original while essentially producing the same levels of coverage losses and premium increases.

The report discovered that the legislation would reduce the deficit by $150 billion over 10 years, down from $337 billion in the original edition.

GOP leaders can afford no more than 22 defections in the House assuming all Democrats oppose the legislation.

Thirty-three House Republicans oppose the AHCA, according to the Hill’s latest whip list, ahead of an expected vote Friday afternoon.