Larry Summers: 10,000 Americans Will Die Annually From GOP Tax Bill

Thousands of Americans will die each year due to lack of healthcare if the Republican tax bill proceeds, economist Larry Summers predicted on Monday.

"I think this bill is very dangerous," the former Treasury secretary said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Monday. "When people lose health insurance, they're less likely to get preventive care, they're more likely to defer health care they need, and ultimately they're more likely to die."

Summers recently wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that studies from the Chan School of Public Health and the Urban Institute show that one in every 176 to 830 people die after losing health insurance. He estimates from those statistics, and estimates of how many Americans would lose health care coverage under the GOP tax bill, that 10,000 people will die each year.

"You have to look at the data of what the patterns are all across the country," he said. "I don't see how you can believe that if 10 million or 13 million, whatever exactly the number is, of people are going to lose health insurance, that's not going to have health consequences."

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