As Senate Prepares to Vote, Congressional Budget Office Previously Found “Skinny Repeal” of Individual Mandate Would Result in 15 Million Americans Losing Health Insurance

As the Senate plans to vote later today on repealing and/or replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the idea of a “skinny repeal”, or just repealing the individual and employer mandate and ACA tax on medical devices, is now being floated as a last-minute idea. Last December, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) already analyzed the impact of just repealing the individual mandate, concluding that, by 2026 (after 10 years), this would result in 15 million Americans losing their health insurance and premiums in the individual health insurance marketplace increasing by 20%.

The Senate will be called into session at 12pm Noon EDT, and the vote on the motion to proceed to debate (the American Health Care Act, HR 1628, passed by the House on May 4), is expected to begin around 2pm EDT. All the Senate bills that have been proposed (the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, and now this idea of a “skinny repeal”) would be proposed, debated, and voted on as amendments to the whole to the House bill.