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Posted: 2017-03-13T20:15:15Z | Updated: 2017-03-14T18:26:22Z

The Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of Americans without health coverage by 24 million and reduce the federal budget deficit by $337 billion by 2026, according to a Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation report published Monday.

The American Health Care Act , conceived by House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and endorsed by President Donald Trump , has already been approved on party-line votes in two House committees.

These negative findings give lie to Trumps repeated promises that the Republican alternative would provide universal coverage and lower prices for Americans. Shortly before taking office, for example, Trump told The Washington Post that were going to have insurance for everybody and that coverage would be much less expensive and much better.

Congressional GOP leaders already are embroiled in a major struggle to get rank-and-file lawmakers to embrace the legislation. A negative CBO score could make their goal of passing a health care reform bill in the House and Senate and sending it to Trumps desk by mid-April even more difficult.

The law Republicans are trying to replace extended health coverage to 20 million previously uninsured people and reduced the national uninsured rate to the lowest ever recorded . A 2015 Congressional Budget Office analysis also projected it would reduce the federal budget deficit by as much as $137 billion to $353 billion by 2025.