Nobel-winning economists come out against Senate healthcare bill

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the economists wrote that “the Senate bill would narrow coverage, and by driving relatively healthy people from the market, raise premiums for those who remain.”

The Senate healthcare bill unveiled last week does away with ObamaCare’s individual and employer mandates, caps federal Medicaid spending and makes cuts to ObamaCare’s tax credits. Senate GOP leadership is aiming to hold a vote on the measure this week.

The economists said they think it is likely that the Senate bill would reduce coverage for almost as many people as the House-passed bill. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the House bill would result in 23 million fewer people having insurance over a decade.

{mosads}”At a time when economic change is making life more difficult for all but the relatively well-to-do, denying people to access health insurance is a giant step in the wrong direction,” the economists wrote in the letter, first reported by Vox.

The economists also argued that the Senate bill would reduce help for people that are currently buying health insurance through federal and state exchanges. And they criticized the Senate bill because it would largely use savings from cutting healthcare subsidies and coverage to cut taxes for high earners.

The economists spoke positively about ObamaCare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, because it “has provided high quality, affordable health coverage for millions of previously uninsured Americans and helped to slow the growth of health care spending.”

While they said ObamaCare isn’t perfect, they also argued that the Senate bill doesn’t address their concerns.