It took longer than expected, but the wait was worth it. The CBO score for the Senate health care reform bill and amendments that the House will vote on this weekend is now out (well, in leaked form anyway) and the numbers, at first glance, look good for reform’s prospects.
According to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the legislation got slapped with a price tag of $940 billion over the next decade, more expensive than the Senate version, which makes sense since expanding coverage is one of the fixes the House wants to enact. But the CBO reportedly said the legislation would cut the deficit by $130 billion over the next decade and $1.2 trillion the decade after that — steeper deficit cuts than the Senate bill had. As Ezra Klein summed it up, “that’s more deficit reduction than either the House or Senate bill, and more coverage than the Senate bill.” Hoyer noted that it’s the biggest deficit reduction act since the 1993 Clinton budget.
It’ll be interesting to see how the bill achieves that goal. There had been word in the last 24 hours that the excise tax on Cadillac plans — something labor unions had opposed — had to be tweaked to make sure the legislation met its deficit-reduction aims. Will a more robust excise tax on high-end plans weaken labor’s support for the bill? One thing is certain: with the release of the CBO’s numbers, moderate Democrats concerned about the fiscal impact of the bill can now rest easier and support it.
One wait is over, but another one begins. With the official release of the CBO score later today, the clock officially begins on the 72-hour window that Democrats had promised to give members before voting on the legislation. This pegs the vote for Sunday — though Republicans have promised to pull out all the stops to delay the process.
