The bill that the budget office analyzed would have eliminated tax penalties for people who go without insurance. Those changes could have immediately increased the number of uninsured by 27 million, a number that would gradually increase to 32 million in 2026, the budget office said. Without subsidies, the budget office said, enrollment in health plans would shrink, and the people who remained in the individual insurance market would be sicker, with higher average health costs. These trends, it said, would accelerate the exodus of insurers from the individual market and from the public marketplaces. But the effects projected by the budget office would be much more severe.

Source: New York Times January 17, 2017 16:19 UTC