Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) may have a reason to believe his health reform bill could gain the support he has struggled to get over the past month.
The Congressional Budget Office and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation released a preliminary analysis Thursday of Baucus' "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009," estimating it will cost $829 billion. The CBO had originally estimated the cost at $865 billion, a price tag Republicans said was too high.
The bill has undergone almost a month of intense debate by the Senate Finance Committee, which has added 150 amendments in an effort to appease Republicans and moderate Democrats.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said he worries some of his colleagues will focus only on the deficit-neutral piece of the CBO's document.
"A celebration of the deficit effects masks who pays the bills," he said. "This package includes hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes and fees. Most Americans with health insurance will see their premiums increase."
The Senate Finance Committee bill is the last of five health reform proposals to be heard in the nation's capital. The other four Congressional committees with jurisdiction over healthcare have already passed bills this summer.
If the Baucus bill is approved, it will be combined with the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee's Affordable Health Choices Act, passed July 16. Unlike the other bills, the Baucus bill doesn't contain a measure to include a public health plan option.
According to the CBO, the amended Baucus Bill would:
* Establish a mandate for most legal residents of the United States to obtain health insurance;
* Set up insurance "exchanges," through whichindividuals and families could receive federal subsidies to substantially reduce the cost of purchasing that coverage;
* Significantly expand eligibility for Medicaid;
* Substantially reduce the growth of Medicare's payment rates for most services (relative to the growth rates projected under current law);
* Impose an excise tax on insurance plans with relatively high premiums; and
* Make various other changes to the Medicaid and Medicare programs and the federal tax code.