Cost of Health Care Bill Soars, Despite President’s Pledge
Kathryn Nix /
While House and Senate leaders negotiate over the final version of a health care bill, they seem to have forgotten one thing: many of them, including the President, pledged to deny support to any bill which would add to the federal deficit. Until now, budgetary gimmicks have hidden the true cost of the health care bills, but neither chamber of Congress has succeeded at creating a bill which is deficit neutral and falls under $900 billion—the limit set by President Obama himself . In a recent paper, Heritage expert James Capretta lays bare the truth about the cost of Democrats’ health care bills:
• The “Doc Fix.” Every year, Congress must vote to postpone cuts to Medicare physicians’ fees. Suspending these cuts adds to the federal deficit. Both the House and Senate bills were scored by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as though these cuts to physicians’ fees will occur, which, on paper, makes the cost of reform cheaper by hundreds of billions of dollars. Acknowledging that these cuts will not take place reveal that both health care bills add about $80 billion to the deficit over ten years. (more…)