October 11,2009

The America’s Healthy Future Act: Highlights of the CBO-JCT Cost Analysis

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirmed that the America’s Healthy Future Act would reduce the federal deficit, increase health insurance coverage, and slow the growth in federal health care spending. Read below for an overview of what this bill does to deliver fiscally-responsible health care reform.  The report can be found at http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=10642.

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“According to CBO and JCT’s assessment, enacting the Chairman’s mark, as amended, would result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $81 billion over the 2010–2019 period.”  (CBO-JCT, page 2)

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“In subsequent years, the collective effect of those provisions would probably be continued reductions in federal budget deficits.”  (CBO-JCT, page 2)

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“Under the proposal, the share of legal nonelderly residents with insurance coverage would rise from about 83 percent currently to about 94 percent. Roughly 23 million people would purchase their own coverage through the new insurance exchanges, and there would be roughly 14 million more enrollees in Medicaid and CHIP than is projected under current law.”  (CBO-JCT, page 5-6)

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“All told, the proposal would reduce the federal deficit by $12 billion in 2019, CBO and JCT estimate. After that, the added revenues and cost savings are projected to grow more rapidly than the cost of the coverage expansion. Consequently, CBO expects that the proposal, if enacted, would reduce federal budget deficits over the ensuing decade relative to those projected under current law—with a total effect during that decade that is in a broad range between one-quarter percent and one-half percent of GDP.”  (CBO-JCT, page 11)

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“Under the Chairman’s proposal, the projected effects on the federal budget deficit also represent the change in the federal government’s overall commitment of resources to health care because essentially all of the spending and tax elements contained in the proposal are related to health care. Thus, the proposal would reduce the federal budgetary commitment to health care, relative to that under current law, during the decade following the 10-year budget window.”  (CBO-JCT, page 11)

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“[I]n view of the projected net savings during the decade following the 10-year budget window, CBO anticipates that the proposal would probably continue to reduce budget deficits relative to those under current law in subsequent decades.”  (CBO-JCT, page 12)

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