Democrats' plan to expand ACA insurance would cost about $53B, CBO estimates

House Democrats' plan to temporarily expand health coverage and subsidies under the ACA would cost about $53 billion and cover fewer than 2 million uninsured Americans, according to a Feb. 15 report from the Congressional Budget Office.

Five things to know:

1. About 1.3 million Americans would gain insurance under the changes, according to the CBO. The cost to cover those Americans would be roughly $34.2 billion from 2021-2030, according to the CBO.

2. A policy to end the requirement that people repay overpayments of health insurance subsidies for the 2020 plan year would increase the federal deficit by $6.3 billion, CBO estimates.

3. Fully subsidizing coverage for Americans getting unemployment benefits would cost $4.5 billion. 

4. CBO estimates it would cost $7.8 billion to subsidize COBRA benefits. The office said the COBRA expansion would cover about 600,000 uninsured Americans and 1.6 million who would have otherwise had coverage through Medicaid, nongroup and employer-based coverage.

5. In total, the proposals would cost $52.8 billion.

Read the full report here.

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