Healthcare Cost Estimate Tops $1 Trillion
Posted on Tue, May 18, 2010
While
healthcare reform is certainly needed, and millions of Americans will benefit from
medical insurance reform. The question of how we pay for reform is still very much unanswered.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a letter to Congressional leaders this week touting the Administration's early success in implementing certain provisions of health care reform. Meanwhile, officials from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported on Tuesday that the health care reform legislation will cost about $115 billion more in discretionary spending over the next ten years than the original cost projections.
The CBO representative pointed out that if Congressional lawmakers approve this additional spending, the total cost of the health care reform law will exceed $1 trillion over the next ten years. A Republican spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee responded saying, "If Congress were to approve all of this new discretionary funding authorized in the health care bill, almost all of the administration's highly touted savings would be made null and void."
According to a recent Rasmussen report, 63 percent of Americans believe the new health care reform law is likely to increase the federal deficit. Further, 56 percent of voters continue to favor repealing the health care reform legislation, while 58 percent feel this new law will increase health care costs.