October 30th, 2009
Philadelphia Inq reports
The White House cheered, and Democrats hoped for a vote next week, but fresh questions were raised.
WASHINGTON – Cheered by President Obama, House Democrats rolled out landmark legislation yesterday to extend health care to tens of millions who lack coverage, impose sweeping new restrictions on the insurance industry, and create a government-run option to compete with private insurers.
But even as party leaders pointed toward a vote next week, there were fresh questions that went to the heart of their ambitious drive to remake the nation’s health-care system.
Congressional budget experts predicted the government insurance option would probably cost consumers somewhat more than private coverage. At the same time, rank-and-file conservative Democrats sought additional information about the bill’s overall impact on federal health-care spending.
There was no official estimate on the total cost of the legislation, which ran to 1,990 pages. The Congressional Budget Office said the cost of additional coverage alone was slightly more than $1 trillion over a decade. But that omitted other items, including billions for disease-prevention programs.
Yet an additional $230 billion or more in higher fees for doctors treating Medicare patients, included in an earlier version of the bill, was stripped out and will be voted on separately.
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