Oct 8, 2009 9:56 am US/Eastern
Review: Health Care Bill Lowers Deficit
The Congressional Budget Office Projects The Senate Finance Committee Health Bill Would Reduce The Number Of Uninsured By 29 Million
Cantor: Health Care Plan Savings Dubious
WASHINGTON (CBS News) ―
Health care legislation drafted by a key Senate committee would expand coverage to 94 percent of the eligible population at a 10-year cost of $829 billion, congressional budget experts said Wednesday in a preliminary estimate.
The Congressional Budget Office added that the measure would reduce federal deficits by $81 billion over a decade and probably lead to "continued reductions in federal budget deficits" in the years beyond.
The report paves the way for the Senate Finance Committee to vote as early as Friday on the legislation, which is largely in line with President Barack Obama's call for the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system in a half-century.
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee chairman and principal architect of the measure, hailed the budget report.
"This legislation, I believe, is a smart investment on our federal balance sheet. It's an even smarter investment for American families, businesses and our economy," he said on the Senate floor.
The lower price tag does make it easier to pass this bill out of committee, but then the real work begins, reports CBSNews correspondent Nancy Cordes. Senate leaders have to meld it with a more liberal reform bill that contains a public option - two very different bills and all these numbers are likely to change, reports Cordes.
The committee Baucus chairs is the fifth and last of the congressional panels to debate health care. The Senate Finance version has a decided middle-of-the-road flavor, shunning any provision for the government to sell insurance in competition with private industry. Nor does it require businesses to offer coverage to their workers, although large firms that do not would be required to offset the cost of any government subsidies going to those employees.
The measure would require that millions of Americans purchase private insurance for the first time, and would set up a new marketplace where policies would be available.
Federal subsidies would be available to millions of lower-income individuals and families to help defray the cost of coverage that would otherwise be out of their reach.
The measure would be paid for through a variety of tax increases and spending cuts, including savings of hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, the federal health care program for seniors.
Democratic leaders in both houses are hoping to hold votes on health care on the floor of the House and Senate within a few weeks.
Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., disputed the assessment.
"The claims that we're saving $81 billion by spending $829 billion, you know, you can say that if you want to go ahead and really rob Peter to pay Paul. And that's exactly what's going on here," Cantor, the House Minority Whip, told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez Thursday.
On Wednesday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary estimate on the cost of the proposal, projecting budget savings of $81 billion over the next decade. It also said "continued reductions in federal budget deficits" were probable in the years beyond. The plan would cover 94 percent of legal, nonelderly Americans within 10 years and would be paid for through a combination of tax increases and spending cuts.
"The way that they are expanding coverage is by taxing employers, is by taxing those of us who have insurance, and, frankly, to the tune of $500 billion," Cantor claimed. "And they're adding on top of that $400 billion worth of cuts to Medicare, which that will mean seniors will have less opportunity, less benefit, less ability to choose the kind of health care that they want."
Anticipating approval by the Finance Committee this week, Majority Leader Harry Reid is already overseeing efforts to merge that bill with an alternative approved by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
Reid is subject to intense cross-pressures, not only from the members of the two committees, but also from the Obama administration and rank-and-file senators seeking to mold the legislation to their liking.
Reid also must take into account the likely need to amass 60 votes behind any legislation, the majority needed to overcome any Republican filibuster.
Baucus has expressed confidence he has the votes for his measure inside the Finance Committee, and the major lingering question there is whether Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, will break ranks with fellow Republicans and vote for it. She has been steadily noncommittal in public statements, but is under pressure from her own party to oppose the legislation.
Wednesday's report from CBO's director, Dr. Douglas Elmendorf, stressed that the estimates were preliminary.
It said that by 2019, "the number of nonelderly people who are uninsured would be reduced by about 29 million," either through private insurance or by enrolling in federal programs. That would leave an additional 25 million uninsured, about one-third of them illegal immigrants who are not eligible for coverage under the bill.
"Under the proposal, the share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage would rise from about 83 percent currently to about 94 percent," the letter said.
Throughout the firestorm of conservative criticism of his health care agenda, President Obama has insisted the only thing he would eliminate from Medicare is wasteful spending, not quality of care.
Mr. Obama's late-summer media blitz appears to have softened public resistance to reform. A recent AP poll found Americans split - 40 percent in favor, 40 percent opposed - on health care, a sharp drop from the 49 percent opposition a month earlier.
Resistance among seniors is down as well - just 43 percent opposed compared with 59 percent a month ago.
But Cantor said one key element of more liberal proposals - the public option - has been "resoundingly rejected by the American people." The Senate Finance Committees proposal doesn't contain a provision for a public option, but would subsidize health care for low-income Americans.
That plan is just one of several in Congress, so lawmakers will have to merge the varying proposals - some of which still contain a public option provision - into one bill. That process will likely change the overall cost and deficit projections.
Cantor said he would meet with House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer to "look at the things that we can agree upon."
But he insisted that Republicans would "reject the notion of the government takeover" of health care.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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