By Bo Erickson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Ten million more Americans will be uninsured in the next decade due to changes in President Donald Trump’s tax and spend law, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office.
The nonpartisan CBO analysis comes after the legislation became law in July and is an update from a previous analysis that estimated almost 11 million Americans would be uninsured from previous versions of the legislation.
The tax and spending law was passed with only Republican votes, as Democrats said the bill was a giveaway to the rich at the expense of low-income Americans. To pay for extending tax cuts passed under Trump’s first term and some new temporary tax cuts and other spending, the law has enacted some restrictions and requirements to access the low-income health insurance program, Medicaid.
The CBO also estimated that income will decrease for the poorest Americans by $1,200 per year due to the law’s tax and benefit changes, but increase for middle-income households from $800 to $1,200, as well as by more than $13,000 for the wealthiest Americans.
“The changes in resources will not be evenly distributed among households. The agency estimates that, in general, resources will decrease for households toward the bottom of the income distribution, whereas resources will increase for households in the middle and toward the top of the income distribution,” the report said.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; editing by Andy Sullivan and Aurora Ellis)
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