Estimates of the Increase in Uninsured by Congressional District Under the Senate GOP Tax Bill

The following article by Emily Gee was posted on the Center for American Progress website December 5, 2017:

Mitch McConnell Credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts

Last week, the Senate dealt a blow to health care by repealing the individual coverage mandate as part of its tax bill. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimatedthat repeal of the mandate will result in millions more uninsured over the next decade, even if Congress approves a market stabilization package. A major portion of the newly uninsured would come from the individual market, where mandate repeal would raise premiums and drive some people out of coverage altogether.

The CBO projects that 4 million fewer people would have coverage in 2019 and 13 million fewer would be covered by 2025. As a result, the share of the nonelderly population that is uninsured would swell to 16 percent by 2025, compared with about 10 percent currently. By simply allocating the 13 million proportionally across states, the Center for American Progress estimates that, on average, about 29,800 more people would be uninsured in each congressional district by 2025 under the Senate Republican tax bill. CAP previously published state-level estimates of coverage reductions due to mandate repeal here. Continue reading “Estimates of the Increase in Uninsured by Congressional District Under the Senate GOP Tax Bill”