CBO won't have an estimate on Affordable Care Act's deficit impact prior to House repeal vote

The Congressional Budget Office is still assessing the impact of the Supreme Court's Affordable Care Act decision on the federal deficit and won't have an estimate until the end of July. That figure, when it's calculated, could either help or hurt Congressional Republicans' efforts to repeal the law.

“Because such updated projections are the base against which CBO will estimate the budgetary effects of changes in the ACA, CBO cannot provide estimates of the effects of such changes — including the effects of repealing the ACA — until that assessment is completed during the week of July 23rd,” CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote in a blog post Monday.

In February 2011, the nonpartisan budget office estimated that repealing the ACA would add $210 billion to the federal deficit over 10 years. When the CBO calculated that rate, it assumed that the law's long-term care insurance provision — known as the CLASS Act — would remain and that all states would participate in the law's larger Medicaid program. The Obama administration has since shelved CLASS, and the Supreme Court ruled that states can opt out of the Medicaid expansion.

An updated figure from the CBO would likely factor in the CLASS and Medicaid changes as well as new taxes included in the legislation. Republicans are hoping that updated estimates will add to their argument that the law is too expensive and should be repealed, The Hill reported. The House is scheduled to vote on the ACA's repeal on Wednesday.