House Health Bill Numbers Come Out Today

Update: The Congressional Budget Office has put out their amended score of the House health care bill. It can be found here. A summary of the bill can be seen here.

Update: The Joint Committee on Taxation has put out their numbers on the revenue side. That pdf, which can be accessed here, claims a net total of $557.5 billion in revenue offsets over ten years, beginning basically with $33 billion in offsets in 2011.

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi will unveil legislation today for the latest House health care reform bill. While the score from the Congressional Budget Office is not yet public information, it should be available soon. For now, the following details have emerged about the House bill:

• The measure will cost $894 billion over ten years
• It will extend coverage to 36 million uninsured Americans
• It requires employers to offer coverage to their workers
• It will impose a surtax on the wealthiest Americans
• It encourages greater use of preventive care, electronic records, and research on effectiveness
• It will likely include a version of the public option preferred by moderates
• It may raise Medicaid eligibility levels to 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Level
• It implements cost savings to Medicare and Medicaid that would save about $500 billion over ten years

Apparently, House leaders were able to lower the overall price tag of the legislation in part by expanding Medicaid coverage, which is more cost-effective than offering subsidies for private insurance policies.