No, 24 Million Will Not Lose Coverage Under TrumpCare

I’m relunctant to defend this dumpster fire of a bill, but I do prefer arguments against it to be honest, and the main one right now isn’t.

Immediately after the Congressional Budget Office report on the American Health Care Act came out, headlines coalesced around the finding that 24 million people would lose coverage compared to current projections. Ignoring the fact that the initial CBO estimates about Obamacare itself were hilariously wrong about increased insurance coverage compared to Medicaid expansion, the headlines about the GOP proposal are just wrong.

Yes, the CBO estimates that 24 million fewer people will have insurance or Medicaid coverage in 2026 if Trumpcare replaces Obamacare. However, the bulk of them will not “lose coverage”; they will choose not to purchase it.

Trumpcare replaces the individual mandate that taxes people for not having some form of health coverage with the ability for insurers to charge people more if they haven’t had coverage recently.

If you stop forcing people to buy something…get this…fewer people will buy it. This isn’t the dystopian crisis that left-leaning media and pundits suggest; it’s their own panacea – choice. It’s freedom. 24 million people will not be denied coverage, they will decide not to buy it. That is a decision free citizens should be allowed to make.

Freedom is sometimes expensive. In the case of the freedom to forgo health coverage, that expense can take the form of debt, illness, or death. But freedom itself is still an inherent good. Freedom from unconstitutional federal mandates even more so. The fact that some people use that freedom to make poor, costly choices does not negate that. And the fact that more people will be free to make those choices should not be a negative against the bill (there are plenty of those already), it should be a positive.