How Many People Will Lose Coverage Under Trumpcare? CBO, White House Estimates Differ

If estimates this week are to be believed, millions of Americans would lose coverage under the American Health Care Act (AHCA), often called "Trumpcare."

Highly anticipated figures from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) were released Monday and the office's report found 14 million more people would be uninsured in 2018, compared with the current state of things under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. From there the number of uninsured is only expected to grow.

Read: Paul Ryan Defends the AHCA

As changes get made to subsidies and Medicaid, the CBO estimated that by 2020 some 21 million more people would be uninsured and then some 24 million by 2026. That would mean that in a decade about 1 in 5 Americans would be without health insurance compared with about 1 in 10 now.

Both President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan backed the bill aimed at repealing Obamacare. It drew ire from Democrats and Republicans alike, albeit mostly for different reasons. Some in the GOP claimed it doesn't go far enough in walking back the ACA, while many Democrats were angered by Americans losing healthcare coverage and the fact that "Trumpcare" cuts taxes for the very wealthy. Ryan tried to improve support for the bill by pushing the CBO's estimate that the AHCA would save $337 billion in federal spending between 2017 and 2026.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) itself estimated that the CBO would predict about 26 million Americans would lose coverage in the next decade, according to a report from Politico. But the Trump administration pushed back against the idea that it was predicting the 26 million figure.

Read: Trump's Approval Rating Dips

"This is not an analysis of the bill in any way whatsoever," White House Communications Director Michael Dubke told Politico Monday. "This is OMB trying to project what CBO’s score will be using CBO’s methodology."

Press Secretary Sean Spicer later tweeted Tuesday that the Politico story was, "totally misleading (sic). The projection was an estimate of what CBO would conclude. It was not a [White House] analysis."