Health overhaul law potentially costs $115B more

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's new health care law could potentially add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending over the next 10 years, congressional budget referees said Tuesday.

If Congress approves all the additional spending called for in the legislation, it would push the ten-year cost of the overhaul above $1 trillion - an unofficial limit the Obama administration set early on.

The Congressional Budget Office said the added spending includes $10 billion to $20 billion in administrative costs to federal agencies carrying out the law, as well as $34 billion for community health centers and $39 billion for Indian health care.

The costs were not reflected in earlier estimates by the budget office, although Republican lawmakers strenuously argued that they should have been. Part of the reason is technical: the additional spending is not mandatory, leaving Congress with discretion to provide the funds in follow-on legislation - or not.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20100511/D9FKS9300.html

[unhappycamper]

1. Wow!

That's $15 billion more than it costs

for the 100,000 soldiers in Afghanistan each fucking year.

[bluestateguy]

2. That all assumes that any new spending is not paid for

And really, I have had it with the nerds at CBO sticking their nose in things that are none of their business anyway. Who elected them?

[Zenlitened]

3. .

:wow:

[Bigmack]

4. It's too expensive to keep 'Murikans alive...

we've got important weapons to build and yachts for the wealthy.

Shit!

[Oregone]

5. And imagine...you could of just save $400 billion a year with single-payer

(as well as a whole lotta lives)

But who cares. Its a win. We will campaign on fixing it later!

[dflprincess]

6. Especially when you consider that a good chunk of those billions

will be paid to private, for profit insurers in the form of premium "subsidies". And with all this money being spent, we still didn't get a guarantee of access to care.