"Creative accounting" opens the door for health care scam to be passed as law.
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Health Bill Estimated to Cost $940 Billion, Setting Up Possible Sunday Vote
House Democrats said Thursday that their revamped health care reform bill would achieve the deficit reductions needed to push forward with a delicate plan to finalize the package, setting up a possible vote for Sunday.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the updated package would cost $940 billion over the next decade without adding to the deficit.
Sources said the estimate shows the bill would save $130 billion over the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion over the second decade. It is estimated to expand health insurance coverage to 32 million more Americans -- or 1 million more people than the original Senate bill.
The numbers from the Congressional Budget Office were highly anticipated, since a failure to control costs had the potential to spoil Democrats' plans for finishing their work on the bill. But House Democrats described the results as very positive.
"We are absolutely giddy over the great news that we've gotten from the CBO," House Democratic Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said Thursday.
Republicans still pledged to do whatever they can to defeat the bill and were unimpressed by the CBO numbers.
"They're still going to spend a trillion dollars so we impose government-run health care on the American people," House Republican Leader John Boehner said.
Here's why the budget estimate was so critical: House Democrats want to pass the "side-car" package of changes to the Senate-passed health care bill under "reconciliation" rules, which would allow the Senate to pass it with just 51 votes, instead of 60. However, in order to qualify for the process, the CBO estimate needed to show that the bill saves at least $1 billion over five years and creates absolutely no deficit after that period of time.
In the run-up to the release of the estimate, Democrats were potentially jeopardizing that by squabbling over the Senate-passed tax on high-value insurance plans that ensured the bill is paid for -- liberal Democrats and unions long had issues with that tax and originally called for a straight tax on the wealthy in the original House bill.
Rep. Rob Andrews, D-N.J., conceded Wednesday night they were having "technical" issues with provisions like the excise tax.
But the CBO numbers showed the bill could meet the requirements for reconciliation.
"This is good news," Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said Thursday.
With the release of the estimate, the earliest a vote on the House floor could happen is Sunday. The plan is for lawmakers to post the reconciliation bill online Thursday afternoon, starting the 72-hour timeframe Democrats say they will allow for the public to review the language.
Some fiscally minded lawmakers wanted to see the CBO numbers before deciding how to vote and it's unclear whether the estimate changes any minds. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is still several votes short of the 216 needed to pass the Senate-approved package.
