So the Congressional Budget Office's numbers are out. Sort of. While we now have an official document from the CBO evaluating the Democratic health care proposals, the analysis opens with this following cautionary note:
Although CBO completed a preliminary review of legislative language prior to its release, the agency has not thoroughly examined the reconciliation proposal to verify its consistency with the previous draft. This estimate is therefore preliminary, pending a review of the language of the reconciliation proposal, as well as further review and refinement of the budgetary projections.
What basically happened is that Democrats were rushing to get out the CBO scores so that they could have some sort of claim to have released them 72 hours prior to a vote, which they want to hold on Sunday. But we won't have 72 hours to look at the actual final scores.
An initial reading of the report suggests that Democrats employed similar accounting gimmicks as in previous iterations of the health care bill, while making up a shortfall with more cuts to Medicare Advantage, siphoning money from the Student loan bill, and raising taxes further. While I'll go into further detail later once I've had a chance to look at all of the moving parts, and analyze the actual bill itself, one thing worth highlighting is that as expected, Democrats have maintained the strategy of delaying the major spending provisions until 2014 to create the appearance that the bill is cheaper over the CBO's ten year budget window, from 2010 through 2019. In this version, the bill spends $17 billion in the first four years, while the remaining $923 billion, or 98 percent, is spent in the next six years. I've illustrated this tactic in the chart below. One thing to note is that the oft-quoted $940 billion number only pertains to the cost of expanding coverage -- which is the bulk of spending in the bill -- but it does not include all other costs, such as the providing more Medicare prescription drug subsidies, which costs about $38 billion. I've used the $940 billion figure in the chart below, but have specified that it's only the cost of the coverage provisions.
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Tim| 3.18.10 @ 1:06PM
The Hockey Stick graph lives!
Ho Shmo| 3.18.10 @ 11:40PM
How much is this REALLY compared to how much is spent right now in the "private" system?
People act like this is new spending... it's not. It's just spent a different way. No one... and I mean NO ONE really compares the numbers that matter. Not fox, not nbc or abc or any of the other "left wing"...
So stop filling our info highways with crap that doesn't say crap...
Tax Payer| 3.19.10 @ 3:32PM
Even if the cost is the same "Private" vs "Government" there is a very large difference.
Under the private system, I DECIDE whether I want to spend money on health care. If I choose not to, I get sick, loose my house, etc.
Under the "GOVERNMENT" system, they took more TAX MONEY FROM ME, and choose to pay someone elses health care bill.
Baerjamin| 6.1.10 @ 2:22PM
@ Tax Payer That's myopic. You are, as a tax payer, paying in ANY case.
If someone -- some estimates are up to 30% of people -- don't have insurance and they go to the hospital and they get treated YOU pay for it anyway! The idea is to take the money you're already spending via taxes and apportion it in a way that's far more cost effective and proactive. Today people wait to deal with medical issues and often show up at the Emergency Room (the most expensive way to deal with any medical issues). Instead let's cover those who don't have the means to pay for health insurance and provide prophylactic education and testing and cut down dramatically on the expense. In either case you are going to pay. In either case you can still decide how to best deal with your own insurance.
Pingback| 3.18.10 @ 2:16PM
Picking Apart New CBO Numbers – Blog Watch links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.18.10 @ 2:27PM
CBO Performs Voodoo Math and Other Undead Zombie Health Care Updates; UPDATE: ‘Does links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Pingback| 3.19.10 @ 8:22AM
Fausta’s Blog » Blog Archive » The CBO’s Obamacare estimate links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.19.10 @ 11:33AM
CBO scoring of health care bill. : The American MAXIM links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.19.10 @ 12:19PM
Why Obamacare Would Fail | America Watches Obama links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.19.10 @ 12:20PM
Democrats in the Deathmobile | America Watches Obama links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.19.10 @ 1:26PM
Reconciliation, Deem-and-Pass, the CBO, and Obamacare Smackdown « The Republican Here links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.19.10 @ 7:31PM
Checking the Math on Health Care - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.20.10 @ 3:41PM
CBO Report: 98% of Spending in HC Bill Comes in Last 6 Yrs « www.offmyfrontporch.com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.21.10 @ 11:53AM
Democrats in the Deathmobile « Thoughts Of A Conservative Christian links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 3.22.10 @ 2:52PM
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Picking Apart New CBO Numbers | Go HealthReform links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.7.10 @ 8:35PM
Picking Apart New CBO Numbers | Kaiser Permanente Health Insurance Plan Finder links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ella| 4.26.10 @ 12:54PM
Update: Phil Klein explains more about what’s going on: under the reconciliation rules in last year’s budget, any reconciliation bill would… " - i think they need it. internet fax
Krrish| 5.4.10 @ 2:08PM
It's quite strange that spending 98% of health care bill in the next six years but what's the strategy of Democrats in it, I couldn't understand.Whatever may be the reason but it's not good to accumulating so much only in the last phase.
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