The latest health-overhaul bill from the Senate will cost $829 billion over a decade and provide insurance coverage to 91% of U.S. residents, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office.
The price tag for the Senate Finance Committee's sweeping health bill is in line with President Barack Obama's request that the overhaul cost about $900 billion over a decade and not add to the federal deficit. But the estimate of how far it will expand insurance coverage is lower than what Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D., Mont.) had initially targeted.
According to the CBO, the bill would reduce the federal budget deficit by $81 billion over 10 years.
The within-budget cost estimate paves the way for the Finance Committee to pass the overhaul bill as soon as this week, marking a significant step forward for the president's top domestic priority. Senate leaders will then merge it with another bill, from the Senate health committee, before taking it to a vote on the Senate floor.
Because the Finance Committee is more centrist, its bill is expected to form the backbone of any final legislation. It also is the only bill with the hope of winning the vote of any Republicans, with Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe seen as a possible supporter.
The bill gives tax credits to low- and middle-income Americans to offset the cost of buying health insurance and expands the Medicaid federal-state insurance program to cover a larger swath of the poor. Instead of creating a public-health-insurance plan, the bill calls for the government to fund a series of new nonprofit health insurance cooperatives designed to increase competition with private insurance companies. It gives doctors and hospitals incentives to improve the quality of their care and offer fewer unnecessary tests and treatments.
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