The proposed Republican plan to replace Obamacare might result to more people getting penalised according to a new analysis. The study learns that thirty million Americans are at risk of monetary penalty for failing to maintain health insurance coverage indicated in the bill.

The analysis from Commonwealth Fund has found that there were 30 million working-age adults who have a gap in their insurance coverage for more than three months. "Excluding people who never had insurance, 21 million adults might have been subject to the penalty," Commonwealth Fund's Sara Collins and Munira Gunja wrote.

Republicans in the US House of Representatives unveiled The American Health Care Act (AHCA) earlier this week, which seeks to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more popularly known as the Obamacare. The bill proposes to replace Obamacare’s requirement to acquire health insurance or face a tax penalty with a prerequisite to maintain uninterrupted coverage.

Under the bill, those who apply for insurance in the individual or small-group markets can be penalised by insurer if there is a gap in their insurance for over 63 days in the prior year. Insurance companies are permitted to levy the penalty for 12 months no matter how long the gap was.

Obamacare’s way of penalising uninsured Americans when they sign up after a coverage gap is different. It requires a tax penalty on people who fail to have health coverage of some kind if they are not qualified to be exempted.

"People who live in rural and other areas of the country where health care costs and premiums are higher also would face higher premium surcharges if they had a gap in coverage,” the Commonwealth Fund analysis further notes. Americans with moderate to low incomes are also expected to face higher penalties under the new proposal than they would in Obamacare.

A separate report by Avalere Health indicates that older people, as well as those who receive lower incomes, would get hit the hardest under the proposed replacement plan. Younger people and those with higher income, on the other hand, would have to deal with lower penalties under the AHCA.

Caroline Pearson, senior vice president at Avalere, said the continuous coverage penalty being proposed "functions much like today's individual mandate, but increases penalties for lower-income and older individuals. “It reduces penalties for younger and wealthier people," she added. The proposed bill must be approved by the House and the Senate before it could be signed by US President Donald Trump.

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