United Liberty

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asked the Congressional Budget Office to include the Medicare “doc fix” in its estimates for ObamaCare, which has been specifically excluded to help keep down estimated costs. If the fix were included, the cost of the bill would have exceeded $1.1 trillion, making it much tougher to sell the bill to members.

Here’s the story:

Congressional budget scorekeepers say a Medicare fix that Democrats included in earlier versions of their health care bill would push it into the red.

The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that rolling back a programmed cut in Medicare fees to doctors would cost $208 billion over 10 years. If added back to the health care overhaul bill, it would wipe out all the deficit reduction, leaving the legislation $59 billion in the red.

The so-called doc fix was part of the original House bill. Because of its high cost, Democrats decided to pursue it separately. Republicans say the cost should not be ignored. Congress has usually waived the cuts to doctors year by year.

One of the big talking points for Democrats is the long-term deficit reduction (past the first decade). The CBO says the “doc fix” and other factors could change that (emphasis mine):

Under the analytic approach described in the agency’s previous letters, the combined effect of enacting H.R. 3590 and the reconciliation proposal would be to reduce federal budget deficits over the decade beyond 2019 relative to those projected under current law—with a total effect during that decade in a broad range around one-half percent of gross domestic product (GDP). If the changes described above were made to the legislation, CBO would expect that federal budget deficits during the decade beyond 2019 would increase relative to those projected under current law—with a total effect during that decade in a broad range around one-quarter percent of GDP.

So, there you have it. ObamaCare brings bigger deficits short-term and long-term and it will impact every American negatively as health insurance premiums will continue to rise and costs will not be held in check.