The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation expect the Affordable Care Act‘s mandatory insurance provision to cost $1.38 trillion over the next decade, $104 billion less than their estimate in February.CBO and JCT project that coverage rules will cost the federal government $36 billion this fiscal year, or $5 billion lower than the earlier projection, CBO said Monday.
Insurance marketplace subsidies and Medicaid expansion are among the factors contibuting to the new cost estimate for 2014, according to the report.
The government is projected to pay out $1.84 trillion for insurance exchanges, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Medicaid and small business healthcare tax credit from 2015 to 2024, the report says.
CBO and JCT also forecast about $456 billion in ACA penalty payments, excise taxes on high-premium insurance plans, payroll tax revenues and outlays resulting from employer coverage changes.
