Statement on the CBO scoring of the Senate BCRA legislation

Statement of David Jordan, Executive Director of the Alliance for a Health Kansas on the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the Senate Better Care Improvement Act:

“The Congressional Budget Office issued its analysis of the Senate health care bill, the Better Care Improvement Act (BCRA) of 2017, and as expected, it’s bad news for all Americans and bad news for Kansans. CBO estimates the legislation would cause 22 million Americans to lose their health insurance coverage. Tens of thousands of these will be Kansans. At the same time, covered benefits will be reduced, assistance to purchase insurance will be cut, and deductibles will skyrocket. The hardest hit will be those who are older and have lower income.

“BCRA also makes deep cuts to the Medicaid program (known as KanCare in Kansas), resulting in loss of care for children, individuals with disabilities, and senior citizens. These cuts will harm hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care providers and result in closures that will damage Kansas’ rural communities.

“The CBO score confirms that BCRA is bad for Kansas. We urge Senators Moran and Roberts to vote against this reckless legislation.”