*That's The Price Tag, Not The Actual Cost: *This Associated Press story
<http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091102/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_care_overhaul> gives
the official estimates for the Pelosi insurance "reform" plan.
The health care bill headed for a vote in the House this week costs
$1.2 trillion or more over a decade, according to numerous
Democratic officials and figures contained in an analysis by
congressional budget experts, far higher than the $900 billion cited
by President Barack Obama as a price tag for his reform plan.
While the Congressional Budget Office has put the cost of expanding
coverage in the legislation at roughly $1 trillion, Democrats added
billions more on higher spending for public health, a reinsurance
program to hold down retiree health costs, payments for preventive
services and more.
No one should expect that the bills, if passed, will cost a mere 1.2
trillion. We know that because the Democrats have every incentive to
underestimate the actual costs, and to impose conditions on the CBO
estimates that make those underestimates, too.
We also know that, because past estimates on these expansions have been,
with one exception, low, usually wildly low
<http://www.seanet.com/%7Ejimxc/Politics/October2009_3.html#jrm8016>.
If they are promising that their packages will cost 1.2 trillion, we
should should expect them to cost hundreds of billions more. Unless, of
course, some future Congress imposes drastic controls on the services
available to those covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and these new programs.
- 10:04 AM, 4 November 2009 [link]
<http://www.seanet.com/%7Ejimxc/Politics/November2009_1.html#jrm8064>
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