(Bloomberg Politics) — The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) could become more affordable.
PPACA, or "Obamacare," as it is commonly known, will cost 20 percent less than previously projected over the next decade, the CBO said Monday. The reason for the revised estimate is a result of a decline in the rate of health care inflation.
The CBO says there were 42 million uninsured people in the United States in 2014. Without PPACA, there could have been about 54 million uninsured people.
The agency estimates that the number of uninsured people could fall to 29 million to 31 million by the end of 2016. If PPACA coverage expansion programs were not in effect, the number of people uninsured at the end of 2016 could be about 24 million to 27 million higher, the CBO says.
In 2009, when the CBO was analyzing the bill that became PPACA, it predicted that bill could reduce the number of uninsured people to 24 million by 2019.
