Cost of US health reforms is estimated at $1.6 trillion for first 10 years

doi:10.1136/bmj.b2571

Published 25 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b2571
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b2571

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Cost of US health reforms is estimated at $1.6 trillion for first 10 years

Bob Roehr

¹ Washington, DC

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

President Barack Obama’s proposed health reforms are expectedto cost $1.6 trillion (£1 trillion; ${euro}$ 1.1 trillion) in newmoney over the first 10 years, at least a third more than advocateshad hoped, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated.

Douglas Elmendorf, director of the office, said, "While popularmeasures such as increasing preventive care, expanding the useof electronic medical records, and rewarding doctors for choosingmore effective treatments have the potential to lower costs,little reliable evidence exists about exactly how to implementthose types of changes."

The office has the task of evaluating the cost of any proposedlegislation. It is scrupulously non-partisan, and its numbersare highly respected, though often not liked.

Its report into the cost of reforming the US health system saidthat expanding health insurance coverage to all Americans andsubsidising its purchase for anyone whose income is below fourtimes the poverty level . . . [Full text of this article]

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