Health Insurance Reform For $1 Trillion Says Congressional Budget Office
Tuesday Jun 16, 2009Health Insurance Reform For $1 Trillion Says Congressional Budget Office in Politics and Legislation
Last
week, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy unveiled his landmark 600-plus page health
care and health insurance reform bill.
This week, the Congressional Budget Office said Senator Kennedy’s plan will increase the federal deficit by a staggering $1 trillion in just 10 years, reported Reuters.
The CBO estimated the cost of the bill by looking at the provisions as the Kennedy bill stands now, but they pointed out that the bill was incomplete — so take the number with a grain of salt.
Still, damage done.
Critics of Democratic lawmakers’ reforms now only have political fuel that could potentially keep reform provisions such as a public health insurance plan option at bay.
If health reform could be killed this year, its cost might be the biggest danger.
What’s the political advantage for critics of Kennedy’s bill? Consider how this hypothetical headline might look to the average person who only causally pays attention to the health reform debate: Health reform will cost $1,000,000,000,000. What an attention grabber.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs recognizes what a political time bomb this could be, but said we can’t let “political posturing stand in the way of reform,” reported the Reuters article.
President Obama has also been actively lowering expectations about reform, explaining it will cause a short-term deficit.
Kennedy spokesperson Anthony Coley pitched in a disclaimer, as well: “As the CBO letter indicates, this is an incomplete statement of an incomplete bill. We look forward to a complete CBO estimate of a complete bill.”
Still, damage done.
