The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : CBO: 98% of Spending in HC Bill Comes in Last 6 Yrs

Text Size

The Spectacle Blog

CBO: 98% of Spending in HC Bill Comes in Last 6 Yrs

By Philip Klein on 3.18.10 @ 12:03PM

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.

View all comments (13) | Leave a comment

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.

Tim| 3.18.10 @ 10:38PM

Welcome to Shop reebok wholesale shoes' online shop. Here, you can see our main sales are reebok easytone wholesale and reebok easy tone. If you buy reebok shoes in our store, you can get more discounts and privileges. And this is our wholesale reebok shoes Shop.This website sells reebok easytone. Reebok easy tone is the best pair of your all shoes,you can make a purchase for reebok easytone shoes online.I guarantee you will be fond of reebok easy tone shoes.

rayv| 3.19.10 @ 5:49AM

With each passing season,ray ban sunglasses sale styles change.ray ban 2010 sunglasses are like any other fashion accessory.So newer styles

can be seen at red-carpet and glamour queens on magazine covers andeventson the faces of Hollywood stars,at the same time,old

styles become the kind of ray ban wayfarer that "your grandmother used to wear,"Eventually those old styles stage comebacks as "retro"

ray ban sunglasses, and the fashion cycle comes full circle.

At the time,you can choose one kind of ray ban 2010 sunglasses if you guys want to look like Heath Ledger on the beach.

www| 3.22.10 @ 9:47PM

edger on the beach.

office 2007| 3.26.10 @ 9:38PM

office pro 2007 VS office ultimate 2007 !

office 2007| 3.26.10 @ 9:38PM

office pro 2007 VS office ultimate 2007 !

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.
garage doors prices