Repealing the U.S. healthcare law enacted last year would add $210 billion to the nation's deficit over the next decade, congressional auditors said on Friday. The Congressional Budget Office said enactment of a House of Representatives measure last month to scrap the healthcare overhaul would eliminate a number of provisions aimed at reducing federal healthcare costs as well as strip out new revenue-creating taxes and fees.
Republicans, who now control the House, campaigned on repealing the law, one of Democratic President Barack Obama's main legislative victories. Despite the vote in the House, the repeal was largely symbolic as neither the Democratic-led Senate nor Obama support it.
The CBO, along with the Joint Committee on Taxation, earlier estimated the law would save the federal government $124 billion between 2010, when the law was passed, and 2019. Its $210 billion cost increase estimate on Friday covers a slightly different period -- 2012 to 2021.
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