Forbes: 73% of CBO's 'Lost Coverage' Estimate Is From Repeal of Individual Mandate

Forbes' opinion editor Avik Roy is shredding the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's evaluation of the Republican healthcare bill.

His comments come in a column for Forbes analyzing the CBO reports on the GOP bill.

"If you've read a newspaper or watched cable news in the last month, you've probably seen someone say that the Senate GOP healthcare bill would kick 22 million Americans off of their health insurance," he said. "But it's not true.

"For years, the CBO has been convinced — despite real-world experience to the contrary— that Obamacare's individual mandate is the biggest reason why that law has increased the number of Americans with health insurance."

He added: "The idea that America should be forced by the government to buy a private product, merely for the offense of being alive, is seen by all conservatives as a constitutional injury.

"And there's a more fundamental question: if Obamacare's insurance is so wonderful, why do millions of Americans need to be forced to buy it? By definition, you haven't been 'kicked off' your insurance if the only reason you're no longer buying it, is that the government has stopped fining you."

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