CBO: ObamaCare spends $50,000 per person who gets insured

While the new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on ObamaCare included an optimistic assessment of the health care reform law's overall costs, the nonpartisan agency's data also indicates that taxpayers will spend about $50,000 for each person who gets insured because of the program.

Here's how the math breaks down: From 2016 to 2025, "between 24 million and 27 million" people will be insured who would not have had insurance if not for the ObamaCare provisions and mandate. And "CBO and [the Joint Committee on Taxation] currently estimate that the ACA's coverage provisions will result in net costs to the federal government of... $1,350 billion over the 2016–2025 period."

That $1.35 trillion breaks down to a $50,000 bill per person using the more generous estimate that 27 million people will become insured.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.

Sign up