Uninsured Americans May Double if Affordable Care Act Repealed

The number of uninsured Americans would increase by more than 100 percent if Congress follows through with its plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) without immediately replacing it, according to a new analysis. The report by the nonpartisan Urban Institute estimates 431,000 more Wisconsinites could become uninsured. Additionally, the number of uninsured children in the U.S. could double to nearly eight million. The new study is based on a scenario where repeal of the law is passed quickly but a replacement plan stalls. Under that scenario, their analysis concludes that the uninsured population will climb by almost 30 million by 2019 and will be higher than it was before the Affordable Care Act was implemented. For Wisconsin, the report concludes that the number of people without health insurance would jump from an estimated 299,000 to about 731,000 in 2019 – an increase of 144 percent. The study attributes the large decline in insurance coverage primarily to three factors – rolling back recent expansions of Medicaid eligibility; ending federal subsidies for private plans purchased in the health insurance Marketplace; and other damage to the individual insurance market during the period of uncertainty between the repeal legislation and the development of a replacement plan. To read the full analysis, visit: urban.org/research/publication/implications-partial-repeal-aca-through-reconciliation.