Sticker Shock

The CBO report released on Tuesday estimated that the reform bill will be much more expensive than previously thought. Cohn summarizes:

The (relatively) good news was the projected impact: The proportion of people without insurance would drop by two-thirds. But the price tag came in at $1.6 trillion over ten years. That was a lot higher than expected....It came one day after the CBO delivered another projection, this time to the Senate Health, Educaiton, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. That verdict was different: HELP's language, according to CBO, would mean outlays of just $1 trillion. But CBO also predicted the HELP bill would ultimately reduce the number of people without insurance by less than half.

Ezra Klein frets.