CBO Says Error Means Less Longer-Term Savings After 2019
The Congressional Budget Office on Sunday sent a letter to Senate leaders informing them that an error in its analysis of the health care reform bill has resulted in less estimated deficit savings projected for the decade after 2019.Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Saturday unveiled the manager’s amendment to the health care reform bill. The manager’s amendment includes several changes to the overall bill that Reid negotiated with Democrats who had been withholding support for the legislation before the changes.“The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has discovered an error in the cost estimate released on December 19, 2009, related to the longer-term effects on direct spending of the manager’s amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Senate Amendment 2786 in the nature of a substitute to H.R. 3590 (as printed in the Congressional Record on November 19, 2009),— CBO Director Doug Elmendorf wrote in a letter dated Dec. 20.“Correcting that error has no impact on the estimated effects of the legislation during the 20102019 period,— the letter continues. “However, the correction reduces the degree to which the legislation would lower federal deficits in the decade after 2019.—