Premiums could jump 25 percent if Trump ends ObamaCare subsidies, CBO finds

(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

published 15 August 2017

If President Trump follows through with his threat to end ObamaCare subsidy payments, health premiums and the federal deficit would soar, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. The CBO found that halting the ObamaCare cost-sharing reduction payments, which compensate insurers for curbing out-of-pocket costs for low-income ObamaCare enrollees, would drive up the federal deficit by $194 billion over the next decade. Premiums would jump 20 percent by next year and 25 percent by 2020.

The number of uninsured Americans would increase by 1 million in 2018 as some insurers may pull out of the marketplaces, the CBO found, but by 2020, there would actually be 1 million fewer uninsured people after the markets adjusted and insurers re-entered the marketplace. Five percent of Americans would have no insurers in 2018, though that would likely be resolved by 2020.