MYTH

Today, Speaker Pelosi stated that the House Democrats’ 1,990 page bill, “meets President Obama’s call to keep the costs under $900 billion over 10 years and it insures 36 million more Americans.” 1

FACT

1. The non-partisan, independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) states that the cost of H.R. 3962, the House Democrats’ health care bill, is “a gross total of $1.055 billion.” 
2. The total cost of the Democrats’ bill will skyrocket, exceeding $1.3 trillion, once they properly account for the Medicare physician payment reform provision.  

1.President Obama, in his remarks to a joint session of Congress, specifically stated that once you “add it all up” the cost will be “around $900 billion over 10 years,”  Here is the President’s full quote: “Now, add it all up, and the plan I’m proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years — less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration.”  (Emphasis added, Source: President Obama, Transcript of Remarks by the President to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care)

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