Cato Institute scholars claim the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis is skewed:
Writes Michael Cannon:
Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-MT) health care overhaul would cost more than $2 trillion. It would expand the deficit. But he has carefully and methodically hidden those facts – so well that he has completely hoodwinked nearly all the major media.
For details, see his post: Baucus Bill Would Cost More than $2 Trillion.
Michael Tanner writes:
The CBO provides 10- year projections of a bill’s cost. But most provisions of the health bill don’t take effect until 2014. So the “10-year” cost projection only includes six years of the bill.
For details, see his article, How Congress Is Cooking the Books, and listen to his podcast:
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Also, via EconLong, the director of the Congressional Budget Office writes:
The projected savings for the proposal reflect the cumulative impact of a number of specifications that would constrain payment rates for providers of Medicare services. The long-term budgetary impact could be quite different if those provisions were ultimately changed or not fully implemented.
So expect more doctors to stop seeing Medicare patients.
In any case, even if Baucus’s policy proposals reduced the deficit, the policies would be a bad idea: they’d increase insurance premiums and violate our rights to purchase medical care and insurance according to our own best judgment.
