Pelosi: Health Care Bill Reduces Deficit, Spends More Than Senate Bill

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says the conglomerated House health care reform bill--rolled out today at a news conference outside the Capitol--will be deficit neutral, a key qualification for getting moderates on board.

"The bill is fiscally sound, will not add one dime to the deficit," Pelosi proclaimed.

The bill features a public option that lets doctors negotiate their payment rates, a step back from liberals' preferred policy of pegging reimbursement rates to those used in Medicare.

It will reduce the deficit by $30 billion over the first ten years of its enactment, according to a fact sheet released by the Speaker's office based on preliminary analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

Total spending for the first ten years is $894 billion--just under the $900 billion mark set by President Obama and a shade higher than the $829 billion contained in the public-option-less Senate Finance Committee Bill, which, according to the CBO, would save the government $81 billion over its first decade.