The Senate health care bill bill being presented by Harry Reid to
Democrats today will cost $849 billion over 10 years, according
to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office,
several
news outlets have reported. According to the reports, the CBO
has also estimated that the bill would reduce deficits by $127
billion and cover 31 million uninsured Americans.
I still haven't seen either the bill or the actual CBO report,
and the devil is always in the details. In other health care
bills, Democrats have used accounting tricks to disguise the true
cost of legislation -- such as delaying the major spending
provisions. So it's worth waiting to see what the actual CBO
analysis says.