Senate Health Bill to Cost $829 Billion
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez shows a registration certificate as he poses for pictures at the headquarters of the National Elections Council, CNE, in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, June 11, 2012. Chavez rallied thousands of his supporters Monday, wearing his signature red beret and singing a folk song as he formalized his presidential candidacy and launched his re-election bid. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano) / Fernando Llano
Health care legislation drafted by a key Senate committee would expand coverage to 94 percent of the eligible population at a 10-year cost of $829 billion, congressional budget experts said Wednesday in a preliminary estimate.
The Congressional Budget Office added that the measure would reduce federal deficits by $81 billion over a decade and probably lead to "continued reductions in federal budget deficits" in the years beyond.
The report paves the way for the Senate Finance Committee to vote as early as Friday on the legislation, which is largely in line with President Barack Obama's call for the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system in a half-century.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee chairman and principal architect of the measure, hailed the budget report.
"This legislation, I believe, is a smart investment on our federal balance sheet. It's an even smarter investment for American families, businesses and our economy," he said on the Senate floor.
The lower price tag does make it easier to pass this bill out of committee, but then the real work begins, reports CBSNews correspondent Nancy Cordes. Senate leaders have to meld it with a more liberal reform bill that contains a public option - two very different bills and all these numbers are likely to change, reports Cordes.
The committee Baucus chairs is the fifth and last of the congressional panels to debate health care. The Senate Finance version has a decided middle-of-the-road flavor, shunning any provision for the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry. Nor does it require businesses to offer coverage to their workers, although large firms that do not would be required to offset the cost of any government subsidies going to those employees.
The measure would require that millions of Americans purchase private insurance for the first time, and would set up a new marketplace where policies would be available.
Federal subsidies would be available to millions of lower-income individuals and families to help defray the cost of coverage that would otherwise be out of their reach.
The measure would be paid for through a variety of tax increases and spending cuts, including savings of hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, the federal health care program for seniors.
Democratic leaders in both houses are hoping to hold votes on health care on the floor of the House and Senate within a few weeks.
Health Care Reform Progress Report
CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care
Health Care Inches Ahead in the House
Anticipating approval by the Finance Committee this week, Majority Leader Harry Reid is already overseeing efforts to merge that bill with an alternative approved by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Reid is subject to intense cross-pressures, not only from the members of the two committees, but also from the Obama administration and rank-and-file senators seeking to mold the legislation to their liking.
Reid also must take into account the likely need to amass 60 votes behind any legislation, the majority needed to overcome any Republican filibuster.
Baucus has expressed confidence he has the votes for his measure inside the Finance Committee, and the major lingering question there is whether Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will break ranks with fellow Republicans and vote for it. She has been steadily noncommittal in public statements, but is under pressure from her own party to oppose the legislation.
Wednesday's report from CBO's director, Dr. Douglas Elmendorf, stressed that the estimates were preliminary.
It said that by 2019, "the number of nonelderly people who are uninsured would be reduced by about 29 million," either through private insurance or by enrolling in federal programs. That would leave an additional 25 million uninsured, about one-third of them illegal immigrants who are not eligible for coverage under the bill.
"Under the proposal, the share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage would rise from about 83 percent currently to about 94 percent," the letter said.
CBS/ AP The Congressional Budget Office added that the measure would reduce federal deficits by $81 billion over a decade and probably lead to "continued reductions in federal budget deficits" in the years beyond.
The report paves the way for the Senate Finance Committee to vote as early as Friday on the legislation, which is largely in line with President Barack Obama's call for the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system in a half-century.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee chairman and principal architect of the measure, hailed the budget report.
"This legislation, I believe, is a smart investment on our federal balance sheet. It's an even smarter investment for American families, businesses and our economy," he said on the Senate floor.
The lower price tag does make it easier to pass this bill out of committee, but then the real work begins, reports CBSNews correspondent Nancy Cordes. Senate leaders have to meld it with a more liberal reform bill that contains a public option - two very different bills and all these numbers are likely to change, reports Cordes.
The committee Baucus chairs is the fifth and last of the congressional panels to debate health care. The Senate Finance version has a decided middle-of-the-road flavor, shunning any provision for the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry. Nor does it require businesses to offer coverage to their workers, although large firms that do not would be required to offset the cost of any government subsidies going to those employees.
The measure would require that millions of Americans purchase private insurance for the first time, and would set up a new marketplace where policies would be available.
Federal subsidies would be available to millions of lower-income individuals and families to help defray the cost of coverage that would otherwise be out of their reach.
The measure would be paid for through a variety of tax increases and spending cuts, including savings of hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, the federal health care program for seniors.
Democratic leaders in both houses are hoping to hold votes on health care on the floor of the House and Senate within a few weeks.
Health Care Reform Progress Report
CBSNews.com Special Report: Health Care
Health Care Inches Ahead in the House
Anticipating approval by the Finance Committee this week, Majority Leader Harry Reid is already overseeing efforts to merge that bill with an alternative approved by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Reid is subject to intense cross-pressures, not only from the members of the two committees, but also from the Obama administration and rank-and-file senators seeking to mold the legislation to their liking.
Reid also must take into account the likely need to amass 60 votes behind any legislation, the majority needed to overcome any Republican filibuster.
Baucus has expressed confidence he has the votes for his measure inside the Finance Committee, and the major lingering question there is whether Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will break ranks with fellow Republicans and vote for it. She has been steadily noncommittal in public statements, but is under pressure from her own party to oppose the legislation.
Wednesday's report from CBO's director, Dr. Douglas Elmendorf, stressed that the estimates were preliminary.
It said that by 2019, "the number of nonelderly people who are uninsured would be reduced by about 29 million," either through private insurance or by enrolling in federal programs. That would leave an additional 25 million uninsured, about one-third of them illegal immigrants who are not eligible for coverage under the bill.
"Under the proposal, the share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage would rise from about 83 percent currently to about 94 percent," the letter said.
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Still waging your personal war against Bush eh. So tell me lib, if it was wrong for Bush to spend all of that money why is it OK for Obama to do it?
It looks like your dream of National Socialism in America is slipping away...........
Are you kidding?!?!
Bush spent over a TRILLION on Iraq alone!!!
At least Obama is spending the money on AMERICA and AMERICAN CITIZENS!!!
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Quit your whining. You know well those figures yo give are from months ago and now the numbers are as follows.
63% for
36% against
Was it your personal poll that came up with these numbers?
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Quit your whining. You know well those figures yo give are from months ago and now the numbers are as follows.
63% for
36% against
I don't want to hear your bellyaching about the CBO becuaes according to you they were absolutly correct back when they said the costs would be too much for this project. Now that they say the costs can be done you want to call them inaccurate and unreliable.. You dickheads can't have it both ways. It like you people not being able to make up your minds if the president is Communist ,Socialist or marxist. It can't be all three. Your protests show the kind if Rush limpballs Glenn Beck parrots that side with the far right.
Now, just what did people expect from that lap dog CBO? The last time they took issue with Obama he called in their boss and gave him an oral whipping. This is a well orchestrated sham and a lie designed to confuse and pacify the masses. This clandestine, totalitarian government is the antithesis of what the founding fathers intended. Everyone must insist they publish their assumptions and tell us how the intend to pay for this socialist healthcare manifesto.
does congress want a second AMERICAN REVOLUTION? What happens when there is so many people out of work except insurance agents, Congressmens, wall street executives, to pay your new TAX is the goverment going to start to throw the local people in jail or just put a lean on anything they own or just take away your possions on your lively hood? GET people back to work before you increase their TAXES!
Today, punishment is banning from website forums, with your name and political views on record with the DHS.
Punishment for a year (maybe) down the road? If you disagree with the Radical or Progressive leftists/Communists/Fascists will be a visit by the Thought police, who will find a way to fine you, jail you and most certainly shut your internet off indefinitely.
2 or 3 years down the road, we will see Argentina style trench coats who will scoop people up off the streets or homes, never to be seen again.
This is the road paved out for offensive (cough; disagreeing) speech toward Radical or Progressive leftists/Communists/Fascists.
I have had my account banned 31 times now. Why? Disagreeing with Radical Neo-Liberals!