LAUGHINGSTOCK:

President Trump has been saying in recent weeks that the Affordable Care act, or Obamacare, is "dead."

So he's threatened to cut off crucial payments to health insurance companies that help low-income customers pay day to day health care expenses.

That plan, however, may just end up bringing more people into the Affordable Care Act insurance markets.

An analysis by the consulting firm Oliver Wyman shows that if the government stops paying for the subsidies that the lowest-income customers get on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, the government would instead have to provide larger tax credits to more people.

The result? Many more people could end up finding they can get insurance policies at little to no cost at all. And that "might also encourage some subsidy-eligible people who have not previously purchased plans to enroll," the report concludes.

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