August 16, 2009
Lowell Sun Highlights Tax Foundation Special Report on Excess Burden of Higher Tax Rates
"Here's what's really in the health-care reform bill"
By Matt Murphy
How much will health-care reform cost?
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of Obama's plan to be $1.042 trillion over 10 years, or about $100 billion a year.
Obama says he would generate $177 billion by eliminating subsidies to insurance companies. He further estimated $500 billion to $600 billion in savings by making Medicare more efficient and switching to systems like electronic medical records that would cut down on redundant testing by allowing doctors to easily share patient information.
The remaining $30 billion to $40 billion a year requires a new revenue stream. Obama has called for limiting the number of tax deductions on people earning more than $250,000 a year. The Senate Finance Committee is still working on its own plan.
The conservative-leaning Tax Foundation reported this week that Obama's surtax would actually generate $88 billion in new revenue by 2011, and cost the economy $76 billion a year in lost activity.
