NATION/WORLD
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ANALYSIS
Millions to lose coverage under GOP bill
Health secretary says
findings don’t take into
account other rules,
future legislation
By ALAN FRAM and
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Fourteen
million Americans would lose
coverage next year under House
Republican legislation remaking the
nation’s health care system, and the
number would balloon to 24 million
by 2026, Congress’ budget analysts
projected Monday. Their report deals
a stiff blow to a GOP drive already
under fire from both parties and large
segments of the medical industry.
The Congressional Budget Office
report undercuts a central argument
President Donald Trump and Repub-
licans have cited for swiftly rolling
back the 2010 health care overhaul:
that the insurance markets created
under that statute are “a disaster” and
about to implode. The congressional
experts said that largely would
not be the case, that the market for
individual policies “would probably
be stable in most areas under either
current law or the (GOP) legislation.”
The report also flies in the face
of Trump’s talk of “insurance for
everybody,” which he stated in
January. He has since embraced a
less expansive goal — to “increase
access” — advanced by House
Speaker Paul Ryan and other Repub-
licans.
Health secretary Tom Price told
reporters at the White House the
report was “simply wrong” and that
he disagreed “strenuously,” saying it
omitted the impact of additional GOP
legislation and regulatory changes
that the Trump administration plans
for the future.
Still, the budget office’s estimates
provide a detailed, credible appraisal
of the Republican effort to unravel
former President Barack Obama’s
2010 overhaul. The office has a
four-decade history of even-hand-
edness and is currently headed by
an appointee recommended by Price
when he was a congressman. Trump
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., flanked by House
Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, left, and House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on Friday.
has repeatedly attacked the agency’s
credibility, citing its significant
underestimate of the number of
people who would buy insurance on
state and federal exchanges under
“Obamacare.”
On the plus side for Republicans,
the budget office said the GOP
measure would reduce federal defi-
cits by $337 billion over the coming
decade. That’s largely because it
would cut the federal-state Medicaid
program for low-income Americans
and eliminate subsidies that Obama’s
law provides to millions of people
who buy coverage.
It also said that while the legisla-
tion would push premiums upward
before 2020 by an average of 15 to
20 percent compared to current law,
premiums would move lower after
that. By 2026, average premiums
for individuals would be 10 percent
lower than under Obama’s statute, it
said.
The GOP bill would obliterate the
tax penalties Obama’s law imposes
on people who don’t buy coverage,
and it would eliminate the federal
subsidies reflecting peoples’ income
and premium costs for millions.
It instead would provide tax
credits based largely on recipients’
ages, let insurers charge more for
older people and boost premiums
for those who let coverage lapse. It
would phase out Obama’s expansion
of Medicaid to 11 million additional
low earners, cap federal spending
for the entire program, repeal taxes
the statute imposes and halt federal
payments to Planned Parenthood for
a year.
Administration officials took
strong issue with the budget office’s
projections of lost coverage.
“We believe that our plan will
cover more individuals and at a
lower cost and give them the choices
that they want,” Price said.
And House Speaker Ryan said
in a statement the GOP legislation
“is not about forcing people to
buy expensive, one-size-fits-all
coverage. It is about giving people
more choices and better access to a
Justice Dept. asks for more
time on wiretapping evidence
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Facing a Monday deadline,
the Justice Department asked
lawmakers for more time to
provide evidence backing up
President Donald Trump’s
unproven assertion that his
predecessor wiretapped his
New York skyscraper during
the election. The request
came as the White House
appeared to soften Trump’s
explosive allegation.
The House intelligence
committee said it would give
the Justice Department until
March 20 to comply with the
evidence request. That’s the
date of the committee’s first
open hearing on the investi-
gation into Russia’s interfer-
ence in the 2016 election and
possible contacts between
Trump associates and Russia.
A spokesman for the
committee’s
Republican
chairman said that if the
Justice Department doesn’t
meet the new deadline, the
panel might use its subpoena
power to gather information.
“If the committee does
not receive a response by
then, the committee will ask
for this information during
the March 20 hearing and
may resort to a compulsory
process if our questions
continue to go unan-
swered,” said Jack Langer,
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Donald Trump, the president-elect, and President
Barack Obama meet in the Oval Office of the White
House in Washington, Nov. 10, 2016.
a spokesman for Rep. Devin
Nunes, R-Calif.
Trump’s assertions have
put his administration in a
bind. Current and former
administration officials have
been unable to provide any
evidence of the Obama admin-
istration wiretapping Trump
Tower, yet the president’s
aides have been reluctant to
publicly contradict their boss.
White House spokesman
Sean Spicer tried to clarify
Trump’s comments Monday,
saying the president wasn’t
using the word wiretapping
literally, noting that Trump
had put the term in quotation
marks.
“The president used the
word wiretap in quotes to
mean broadly surveillance
and other activities,” Spicer
said. He also suggested
Trump wasn’t accusing
former President Barack
Obama specifically, but
instead referring to the actions
of the Obama administration.
Trump himself has not
commented on the matter
since his March 4 tweets, in
which he said he had “just
found out that Obama had
my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump
Tower just before the victory.”
He also wrote: “Is it legal for
a sitting President to be ‘wire
tapping’ a race for president?”
plan they want and can afford.” In
fact, on the Fox News Channel, he
said the CBO report “exceeded my
expectations.”
Not in a good way, Democrats
said. Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer of New York said
the projections show “just how
empty the president’s promises, that
everyone will be covered and costs
will go down, have been..”
“I hope they would pull the bill.
It’s really the only decent thing to
do,” said House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi of California.
The American Medical Asso-
ciation, which has opposed the
Republican bill because it would
reduce coverage, said the report
shows the legislation would cause
“unacceptable” consequences. “
Two House committees approved
the legislation last week, and Ryan
wants to bring it to the full House
next week. Though many Republi-
cans back the bill, conservatives say
it doesn’t go far enough in repealing
Obama’s law while moderates
Parliament gives UK power to begin ‘Brexit’
LONDON (AP) —
Britain lurched closer to
leaving the European Union
Monday when Parliament
stopped resisting and gave
Prime Minister Theresa May
the power to file for divorce
from the bloc.
But in a blow to May’s
government, the prospect
of Scotland’s exit from the
United Kingdom suddenly
appeared nearer, too. Scottish
First Minister Nicola Stur-
geon called for a referendum
on independence within two
years to stop Scotland being
dragged out of the EU against
its will.
In an announcement that
took many London politi-
cians by surprise, Sturgeon
vowed that Scotland would
not be “taken down a path
that we do not want to go
down without a choice.”
Sturgeon spoke in Edin-
burgh hours before the Euro-
pean Union (Notification of
Withdrawal) Bill passed its
final hurdle in Parliament’s
upper chamber, the House of
Lords.
The House of Commons
told them that he hoped his
children would grow up with
the moral code and character
of those who inhabit the office
and that the workers would
continue the quality of work
they had done for generations,
according to several people
who heard him speak.
The workers later formed
parallel rows behind barri-
cades outside the building
before Bharara, wearing only
a suit in freezing tempera-
tures, walked through the
column to steady applause,
shaking hands and hugging
employees.
A small group of reporters
approached him, and he was
asked if he had a message for
Republican President Donald
Trump. It was unclear if he
heard the question.
“I love New York. And
this is the best, the best
prosecutor’s office you’ve
ever seen,” the misty eyed
prosecutor said, pointing
toward the workers as he
headed back their way.
The request to resign from
the office of Attorney General
Jeff Sessions came as a
surprise to federal prosecutors
after Bharara had been asked
by Trump and Sessions during
a meeting at Trump Tower in
late November to continue his
work.
But the firing of prosecu-
tors appointed by previous
presidents is common when
a new administration takes
over, though it does not
always occur abruptly before
new prosecutors can be put in
place.
approved the bill weeks ago,
but the 800-strong Lords
fought to amend it, inserting
a promise that EU citizens
living in the U.K. will be
allowed to remain after
Britain pulls out of the bloc.
They also added a demand
that Parliament get a “mean-
ingful” vote on the final
deal between Britain and the
remaining 27 EU nations.
Both amendments were
rejected Monday by the
Commons, where May’s
Conservatives
have
a
majority.
L i t t le
D a r l i n gs !
This special section will be fi lled with photos of and
messages for adorable little darlings from Umatilla County.
Families will want to keep this special keepsake for
their child and family for years to come.
PUBLISHES:
April 19, 2017
DEADLINES:
April 6, 2017
Fired prosecutor leaves misty-eyed to applause
NEW YORK (AP) — A
fired federal prosecutor
returned to his office on
Monday to say his goodbyes
and tell the staff of one of
the highest-profile groups of
prosecutors in the nation to
keep up their good work.
Preet Bharara’s return
came two days after he was
fired after refusing to submit
his resignation along with 45
other appointees of Demo-
cratic former President Barack
Obama who were asked to
step down Friday.
Inside the Manhattan
building, Bharara spoke to
dozens of employees who
had worked for him since his
summer 2009 appointment to
an office that has proved to be
a hotbed of future leaders in
government and the law. He
whose states used the statute to
expand Medicaid don’t want people
losing coverage.
GOP leaders hope the Senate
will consider the measure before
breaking for an early April recess.
Opposition from both ends of
the Republican spectrum in that
chamber suggests senators might
demand significant changes.
The budget office attributed
projected increases in uninsured
Americans to the GOP bill’s elim-
ination of tax penalties for people
who don’t buy insurance, to reduced
federal subsidies for many people
who buy policies and to the reduc-
tions in Medicaid.
By 2026, the office estimated,
a total of 52 million people would
lack insurance, including 28 million
expected to lack coverage under
Obama’s statute.
Even though Republican tax
credits would be less generous
than those under Obama’s law, the
combination of those credits and
other changes to lower premiums
would attract enough healthy people
to stabilize markets under the new
plan, the report said.
The budget office sees federal
spending on Medicaid declining
by $880 billion over the coming
decade — about 25 percent lower
than current projections. That would
push about 14 million low-income
people off the federal-state program.
Though average premiums are
ultimately expected to fall, that
would vary for people of different
ages because compared to Obama’s
law Republicans would let older
people be charged more.
The report estimates that individ-
uals’ out-of-pocket costs under the
GOP bill “would tend to be higher
than those anticipated under current
law.” That runs counter to another
claim from the president, that his
health care plan would offer “much
lower deductibles.”
CBO had predicted that 23
million people would be enrolled
under Obama’s law, but the number
proved to be about 12 million —
largely because CBO overestimated
the extent to which the individual
mandate would prompt them to buy
coverage.
Olivia,
t.
I loved you from the very star
heart.
my
ed
rac
emb
,
You stole my breath
un.
beg
just
has
er
Our life togeth
.
You’re part of me, my little one
Love, Mom
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