GOP Health Care Bill: CBO Delays Release of Coverage And Cost Estimates

WASHINGTON, DC — The Congressional Budget Office will not release a report on the Senate GOP health care bill on Monday as initially planned, according to multiple outlets, including CBS and CNN. Republicans had to delay their plans to vote on the bill this week after Sen. John McCain of Arizona underwent emergency surgery Friday.

In previous CBO reports, the nonpartisan office found that Republican health care plans would add tens of millions of Americans to the rolls of the uninsured. Much of these losses are a result of the fact that the plans would drastically cut Medicaid, the program that provides coverage for low-income people, children, pregnant women and people with disabilities. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Many observers, including major health insurance companies, predict that the newest draft bill's most controversial amendment, submitted by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, could throw the individual market for health insurance into chaos.

Watch: A Senator's Surgery Has Forced Another Delay To The Health Care Vote

Republicans have continuously downplayed the importance and accuracy of CBO reports in light of these negative findings. However, they have not yet released their own alternative analyses that would offer different projections.

Some reports suggest that in addition to receiving a CBO score, the newest draft of the bill will also be evaluated by the Trump administration's Department of Health and Human Services. This would provide Republicans the opportunity to offer a different prediction of the legislation's effects.

Write a letter to the editor of the White House Patch.

Like The White House Patch Facebook Page.

Follow us on Twitter.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images