CBO: 3 to 4 million would lose employer-based coverage

Senate Republicans on Tuesday promoted a Congressional Budget Office report that claims between 3 and 4 million people will lose their employer-based health insurance. 

Republicans say that the report shows that the Democrats' healthcare reform bill violates President Barack Obama's claim that people will be able to keep the insurance they have should it pass.

An aide with the Senate Republican Communications Center said "One of Republicans' major concerns is that the bill would force people out from under the insurance coverage on which they depend."

In a release, Republicans pointed to a section of the report saying that between 9 and 10 million people who previously had employer-based insurance coverage would lose it under the bill.

But the report also shows that an additional 6 million people would be covered by an employer-based plan who previously were not because of the individual insurance mandate found in the Senate bill; the net result being that between 3 and 4 million would lose their coverage.

The CBO report says that the losses would tend to hit small businesses and firms with low wage workers--many of whom would be eligible for subsidies under the insurance exchange the bill would create. But the report also says that some would not be eligible for such subsidies.

"Although some workers who would not have employment-based coverage because of the proposal would not be eligible for such subsidies," it says. "Whether those changes in coverage would represent the dropping of existing coverage or a lack of new offers of coverage is difficult to determine."

The report adds that between 1 and 2 million people who could opt to buy employer-based health insurance would opt to buy insurance from the exchange.

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