Bloggers are tentatively reacting to a report and blog post released by the Congressional Budget Office that summarizes the agency’s approach to estimating the cost of any health overhaul bills. At issue is how CBO will count different stipulations of legislation — like an individual mandate or a public plan — and whether their conclusions will result in a heftier price tag. Douglas Elmendorf explained on the Director’s Blog:
“In CBO’s view, the key consideration is whether a proposal would be making health insurance an essentially governmental program, tightly controlled by the federal government with little choice available to those who offer and buy health insurance — or whether the system would provide significant flexibility in terms of the types, prices, and number of private-sector sellers of insurance available to people. The former — a governmental program — belongs in the federal budget (including all premiums paid by individuals and firms to private insurers), but the latter — a largely private-sector system — does not.”
