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An earlier version of a healthcare bill Republican leaders are trying to push through the U.S. Senate would save at least $133 billion over 10 years, Congress' nonpartisan budget agency said on Monday, suggesting it meets requirements to clear the chamber on a simple majority vote. But the U.S. Congressional Budget Office did not assess the most recent version of the Graham-Cassidy bill, leaving it unclear whether it also complies with Senate rules expiring on Sept. 30 that permit approval by a simple majority. (Beech, 9/25)

The latest Senate Republican plan to tilt federal health-care law in a conservative direction would cause “millions” of Americans to lose insurance by 2026, while lessening the federal deficit by at least $133 billion, according to much-anticipated estimates by Congress’s nonpartisan budget scorekeepers. The partial analysis by the Congressional Budget Office, issued late Monday afternoon, said that the precise increase in people without health coverage “could vary widely,” because the Cassidy-Graham legislation would give each state great latitude to design its own health-care policies. (Goldstein, 9/25)

The nonpartisan scorekeeping agency said the legislation's effect on the uninsured rate could vary widely, depending on how states run their health care systems under the plan, which shifts federal Obamacare payments to a system of block grants to states. The plan would hit savings targets required under the expedited rules GOP leaders are using to try to pass repeal with a simple majority. (Bettelheim, 9/25)

CBO says it can't do a complete analysis of the plan in the short window requested by lawmakers. Senate Republicans are looking to vote on the bill this week, before a deadline at the end of September would require they get support from Democrats to be able to pass the legislation. (Kodjak, 9/25)

CBO said the reduction in coverage would be felt in three areas: in Medicaid, because the bill repeals ObamaCare's expansion of Medicaid; in private coverage, because the bill repeals subsidies that help people afford it; and because the mandate to have coverage would be repealed. (Sullivan, 9/25)

The partial score did not include precise estimates of the bill’s effects on premiums and coverage levels, as estimates of previous health care bills did, because of the short turnaround time the federal scorekeeper had to evaluate the text. (Clason, 9/25)

There also was confusion about the bill's amended provisions for letting states relax the ACA's insurance market rules that protect people with pre-existing conditions. Those rules require health plans in the individual market to accept all customers regardless of health status; provide essential benefits; charge everyone the same premium except for a permitted 3-to-1 variance based on age; and set no annual or lifetime caps on benefits. There is general agreement that under the revised Graham-Cassidy bill, states could let insurers discriminate against sicker people. (Meyer, 9/25)

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Monday released its findings on the latest Republican health care bill. (9/25)

Californians who get their health coverage on the individual market could face dire consequences under the current Republican effort to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, warned a new analysis released Monday by Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange. (Mason, 9/25)

A proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act would cost Florida $9.7 billion in federal funding over six years, according to a study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. More than $7.5 billion of that funding loss would come from a change in the way money is distributed to cover individual health insurance plans under the Graham-Cassidy legislation, named for Republican Senators Lindsay Graham, of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy, of Louisiana. (Ochoa, 9/26)

The latest ObamaCare repeal bill would hurt the economy and reduce coverage levels, according to a new report released Monday. The S&P Global Ratings report found that the bill, sponsored by GOP Sens. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (La.), would reduce coverage levels among those making between 133 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty line, or between $16,040 and $48,240 for an individual. (Hellmann, 9/25)

Arizona would see Great Recession-type job losses next decade under a Senate Republican health-care proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act, a new report says. The report released Monday predicted Arizona would lose more than 21,000 jobs and nearly $1.9 billion in economic output in 2020, the first year that the Medicaid expansion's health financing would be converted to block grants under an 'Obamacare' replacement bill introduced by U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La. (Alltucker, 9/25)

Dozens of Massachusetts doctors, hospital executives, and health care advocates issued a grim warning on Monday that the latest GOP-led effort to replace the Affordable Care Act would decimate insurance coverage and disrupt care for vulnerable patients and families. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/25)