Senate Health Care Bill to Cost $849 Billion

Breaking news: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is finally in the midst of unveiling the health care reform plan that will be brought to the Senate Floor (if he can overcome a filibuster). Preliminary reports show that this this bill will have a greater budgetary impact than the House bill, reducing the deficit by $127 billion over ten years as opposed to $109 billion. The total cost of expanding coverage in this bill is reported to cost $849 billion over ten years.

The bill is also expected to reduce the uninsured by 31 million, and will reduce the deficit by around $650 billion, which we estimate to be around 0.25% of GDP in the second ten years.

CRFB will be reporting more information at The Bottom Line as it comes in, and updating all of our charts with new numbers.