As Obama pushes health issue, new cost concerns arise

New York Times, June 16, 2009

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. An analysis released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office raised the hurdles for draft legislation as the office concluded that a plan by the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's Democratic leaders 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.