Friday, March 19, 2010

The CBO says health care bill will cut the budget deficit and cover the uninsured

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its preliminary analysis on the compromise health insurance reform bill today, and it shows simply that Republicans and teabaggers have been lying for an entire year.

Here’s what the CBO says the bill does:
It cuts the deficit: It cuts the deficit by $130 billion in the first 10 years (2010 - 2019), and it cuts the deficit by $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years.

It reduces annual growth in Medicare expenditures by 1.4 percentage points per year-while improving benefits and lowering costs for seniors. It also extends Medicare's solvency by at least nine years. It expands health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans Helps guarantee that 95 percent of Americans will be covered. It is fully paid for - costs $940 billion over a decade. (Americans spend nearly $2.5 trillion each year on health care now and nearly two-thirds of the bill's cost is paid for by reducing health care costs).

More importantly, here’s what it will do for the residents of the 8th Congressional District. Despite those benefits, you can rest assure of two things: the lies from Republicans will continue, and U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers will vote against it.


+ Improve coverage for 505,000 residents with health insurance.
+ Give tax credits and other assistance to up to 150,000 families and 15,100 small businesses to help them afford coverage.
+ Improve Medicare for 90,000 beneficiaries, including closing the donut hole.
+ Extend coverage to 20,000 uninsured residents.
+ Guarantee that 8,100 residents with pre-existing conditions can obtain coverage.
+ Protect 1,700 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
+ Allow 63,000 young adults to obtain coverage on their parents' insurance plans.
+ Provide millions of dollars in new funding for 10 community health centers.
+ Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and other health care providers by $29 million annually.