Ex-CBO head defends agency’s healthcare scoring

A former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) director on Tuesday defended the agency’s projection that the GOP’s ObamaCare replacement plan would result in millions more uninsured.

“I say this is a very uncertain kind of task that they are responsible for and they’re about as good as anybody could be putting together estimates,” Robert Reischauer said on CNN’s “New Day.”

“They’ve also been very transparent about where they’re wrong and why they’re wrong, but overall, it’s a very good estimate I think.”

{mosads}The CBO on Monday projected the number of people without health insurance would grow by 14 million in 2018 under the Republican ObamaCare replacement bill, known as the American Health Care Act.

It estimated that 24 million people would become uninsured by 2026 under the bill, largely due to the proposed changes to Medicaid.

Reischauer said this is a “very complex” issue but that the CBO is “spot-on” 95 percent of the time.

“And when it isn’t, it’s very transparent about why and the American people and the Congress should have some faith in that,” he said.

Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday criticized the CBO, saying it is “terrible at counting coverage.”

He said the CBO report includes “bad assumptions.”

“It’s the only way you can get to these bizarre numbers,” he said. “So I don’t think it’s damage control as much as laying out to people what we thought would happen.”