In a letter to Ways and Means Ranking Member Dave Camp (R-MI), the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed that the much publicized savings proposals offered to the White House by several leading health care groups fall woefully short of their promised $2 trillion target.
 
In the letter, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf wrote that, “only a subset of the initiatives could result in savings (or costs) that would be relevant to CBO’s cost estimates for legislative proposals.”  In fact, CBO highlighted two proposed policies, “extending prescription drug coverage to the entire population,” as “probably increasing the deficit significantly,” and “expanding the use of home and community-based services in Medicaid” as increasing spending by “$8 billion to almost $90 billion.”  Instead of saving $2 trillion, the “savings” proposals offered up by the health care groups might actually end up increasing the cost of health care.
 
Reacting to the letter, Congressman Camp said: “If the health care industry is serious about helping to reform health care, I would suggest they go back to the drawing board and help us find real savings for the American people.”  He went on to note that, “This shows, once again, how difficult health care reform will be if Democrats insist on spending trillions of dollars, while eliminating the health insurance millions of Americans currently have and like.  Republicans are proposing a better plan that will provide coverage to millions of Americans without breaking the bank and without a government-run plan that will put Washington bureaucrats in the examining room with doctors and patients.”

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