If the Trump administration makes good on a threat to cut off some subsidies for low- and medium-income buyers of health insurance, premiums would rise sharply and the federal deficit would balloon, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. If the government stopped making the payments, insurers would respond by raising premiums by 20% to 25% over the next couple of years, the budget office projects. Most consumers would not pay those higher premiums because the law also provides subsidies to help people pay the cost of insurance. Instead, the government's cost for paying the subsidies would soar, the budget office said. The net result would be to increase the federal deficit by about $20 billion per year over the next 10 years, the budget office reported.

Source: Los Angeles Times August 15, 2017 18:41 UTC