On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
>
> [and this isn't even addressing the underinsurance problem]
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/health/policy/16obama.html
>
> The New York Times
> June 16, 2009
>
> As Obama Pushes Health Issue, Cost Concerns Arise
>
> By ROBERT PEAR and JACKIE CALMES
>
> <snip>
>
> But as the president spoke at the annual conference of the American
> Medical Association in Chicago, it became clear that one of the major
> health plans on the table would cost at least $1 trillion over 10 years
> yet leave tens of millions of people uninsured.
>
> <snip>
>
> An analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget
> Office raised the hurdles for draft legislation in the Senate just as
> its Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee planned to begin
> voting on Wednesday. The office concluded that a plan by the
> committee's Democratic leaders, Senators Edward M. Kennedy of
> Massachusetts and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, would reduce the
> number of uninsured only by a net 16 million people. Even if the bill
> became law, the budget office said, 36 million people would remain
> uninsured in 2017.
>
> That finding came as a surprise. Robert D. Reischauer, an economist who
> headed the budget office when Congress tackled the health care issue in
> the Clinton administration, said that if so many people remained
> uninsured, it might not be feasible to cut special federal payments to
> hospitals that serve many low-income people.
>
> Mr. Obama said Saturday that the government could save $106 billion
> over 10 years by cutting such hospital payments as more people gained
> coverage.
>
> <end excerpt>
>
> Michael
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