美国国家公共电台 NPR 美国共和党医保方案至2026年或将使2400万人失去保险

 

We're starting with a U.S. government report concerning a Republican plan to reform health care in America. The report came this week from the Congressional Budget Office or CBO. It's an independent agency. It says it's strictly¹ nonpartisan. The CBO's goal is to analyze² budget and economic issues to help Congress make decisions.

The Republican plan is called the American Health Care Act. It's a proposal to replace the Affordable³ Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

The CBO says on the plus side, the Republican plan would decrease the U.S. federal deficit⁴ by $337 billion over ten years and it would eventually reduce premiums⁵, what Americans pay for health care by 10 percent in the year 2026 compared to what they are now.

On the minus side, those premiums would be expected to go up before they come down and the CBO says by next year, 14 million more Americans would be uninsured than there are now, and that that number would increase to 24 million by the year 2026.

Republican supporters of the plan say that's not because health plans are being taken away, but because Americans wouldn't be required to buy health insurance, like they are under Obamacare. House Speaker Paul Ryan says people will have more choices and better access to an affordable health care plan.

But opponents of the proposal, like Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, say the plan would only help wealthy people and insurance company executives. And Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said it would raise premiums for older, low income Americans and must be defeated.

The Republican plan was introduced last Monday. We'll keep you posted on its path in Congress.

1 strictly   

adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地

参考例句：

• His doctor is dieting him strictly.他的医生严格规定他的饮食。
• The guests were seated strictly in order of precedence.客人严格按照地位高低就座。

2 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

3 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

4 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

5 premiums   

n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价

参考例句：

• He paid premiums on his life insurance last year. 他去年付了人寿保险费。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Moves are afoot to increase car insurance premiums. 现正在酝酿提高汽车的保险费。 来自《简明英汉词典》