PRINTED IN LARGE, FRIENDLY LETTERS: Don’t Panic Over the CBO Repeal Report.

The CBO starts the report cautioning that its estimates “are uncertain” and concludes that “If the Congress considers legislation similar to H.R. 3762 in the coming weeks, the estimated effects could differ from those described here.” Truer words were never written.

The CBO estimates that in the first year after full repeal, but before Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies are eliminated, 18 million people would become uninsured — 10 million fewer in the nongroup market, 5 million fewer with Medicaid coverage, and 3 million fewer with employment-based coverage — and premiums in the nongroup market would rise 20-25 percent higher than under current law. These effects “would stem primarily from repealing the penalties associated with the individual mandate.”

In other words, most of the people who would “lose” their insurance are people who are buying it only because they’re forced to.