Private Health Insurance

CBO examines four policy approaches that could achieve near-universal health insurance coverage.

In 2019, about 12 percent of people under 65 were not enrolled in a health insurance plan or a government program that provides financial protection from major medical risks. In this report, CBO describes that uninsured population.

CBO presents its projections of what federal deficits, debt, spending, and revenues would be for the next 30 years if current laws governing taxes and spending generally did not change.

If current laws generally remained unchanged, large budget deficits would boost federal debt to unprecedented levels over the next 30 years, CBO projects.

This report describes the methods used to assess how the new rules would affect the number of people who obtain health insurance and the costs of federal subsidies for that coverage. It also provides details about those projected effects.

CBO presents new estimates of the budgetary effects of options for a premium support system for Medicare and examines the reasons for the changes in the estimates, including changes in law that have affected the Medicare program.

Under the ACA, most legal residents must get health insurance or pay a penalty. CBO and JCT estimate that 30 million will be uninsured in 2016, but most will be exempt from the penalty; 4 million will make payments totaling $4 billion.