A new Congressional Budget Office study found that repealing Obamacare would boost the economy while also increasing the federal budget deficit and the number of uninsured Americans.
Completely repealing the law would boost the economy by an average of 0.7 percent per year once economic effects have kicked in in the '20s, mostly because people would have to work more to make up for losing government health care assistance through subsidies, according to the nonpartisan CBO, the Associated Press reported.
However, repealing the Affordable Care Act's spending cuts and tax increases would add $137 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade, and the number of uninsured people would increase by about 24 million. The share of insured adults would drop from about 90 percent now to 82 percent, according to The Hill.
The study comes before a highly anticipated King v. Burwell Supreme Court decision this month that could nullify health insurance subsidies for 6 million people in 36 states.
Conservatives who brought the lawsuit maintain that the Affordable Care Act's wording prevents the government from providing financial assistance for private health insurance premiums in states that didn't set up their own insurance market place. The Obama administration argues that the law intended subsidies to be available in every state.
Republican reaction to the report largely focused on the economic benefits, while Democratic reaction highlighted the negative impacts of repeal.
"CBO has determined what many in Congress have known all along," said Rep. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. "This law acts as an anchor on our economy by dragging down employment and reducing labor force participation. As a result, the deficit reduction that the Democrats promised when it was enacted is substantially unclear."
On the other side, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the "cost to the deficit would be surpassed only by the human toll of repeal."
"Republicans would add over 20 million Americans to the ranks of the uninsured, and strip vital health protections from hundreds of millions of American families - shattering the newfound health security that has made a difference in the lives of so many families," Pelosi said. "Republicans should look at the numbers and finally end their fixation with repealing this historic law."
As for the political implications of the report, Politico pointed out that it could "make it harder for Republicans to use so-called reconciliation to repeal the law because congressional budgeting rules bar lawmakers from using the parliamentary maneuver to move legislation that adds to government red ink."
The CBO also warned Congress that the law is already so intertwined with the health care system that repealing it would "present major challenges."
"In the five years since its enactment, nearly every key provision of the law has taken effect and has been incorporated into final rules and other administrative actions. Undoing the ACA would thus be quite complicated," the CBO said, AP reported.
