CBO finds heath overhaul will cost $940 billion over 10 years but trim deficit

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., says the Congressional Budget Office has finished its analysis of the latest Democratic health overhaul bill, Politico is reporting. According to Hoyer, the plan will cost $940 billion over 10 years and will trim the federal deficit by $130 billion in the first 10 years and $1.2 trillion in the second 10 years (Budoff-Brown, 3/18).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: House Democrats say they are on track to vote Sunday on the $940 billion health care bill. "Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland said the legislation will deliver the biggest reduction in the federal deficit since the 1990s, while providing access to health care coverage for nearly all Americans and prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage to the sick" (Werner, 3/18).

The Hill's Blog Briefing Room: According to today's estimates from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, "[t]he bill is more expensive than the healthcare measures passed by both the House and the Senate last year, though the CBO said that the current bill would make larger reductions in the deficit." The Hill also reports that "[t]he release of the CBO score sets into motion a 72-hour endgame on healthcare that could mean a vote in the House on the package as early as Sunday morning" (O'Brien, 3/18).