The Congressional Budget Office this week lowered both the short- and long-term costs of Obamacare by billions of dollars.
A new report released Monday estimated the Affordable Care Act’s net cost for 2014 at $36 billion, $5 billion less than the past figure for the year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation and CBO. Additionally, officials anticipate an overall price tag of $1,383 billion between 2015 and 2024, $104 billion less than previous projections. Premiums through an exchange marketplace will likely be lower than first expected.
The ACA’s coverage provisions will result in lower net costs to the federal government. The new estimates incorporate data updates and account for administrative actions taken and regulations issued through March 2014.
The CBO presented figures in February that concluded Obamacare would cost less than officials originally expected.
The health care law, however, remains a controversial topic. Many Americans continue to disapprove of the ACA, an attitude driven by Republicans who have maintained intense and practically unanimous opposition to the president’s health care law.
Related: GOP lawmaker: New HHS chief will ‘spin the numbers’ on Obamacare HealthCare.gov, the insurance exchange website, opened last year on Oct. 1. The servers were immediately overloaded and it became a disastrous first day followed by weeks of chaos that eventually called into question the prospects of the law. Consequently, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last week resigned from her current role, in which she oversaw the disastrous roll-out.
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