The Congressional Budget Office Wednesday released their preliminary report of the recently amended America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009, sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont.

The good news: the Baucus Bill won’t add to the national debt, coming in below the $900 billion limit set by President Barack Obama over the next 10 years.

The bad news: tons of unfunded mandates for the states, already saddled with their own debts and issues.

The Hill took a look at the specifics:

…It would increase federal spending by $829 billion over 10 years but be offset by enough spending cuts and tax increases to reduce the budget deficit by $81 billion. The net number of legal U.S. residents without health insurance would reduce by 29 million over 10 years, the CBO further concluded. [It] confirms Democratic claims that the bill can expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans and lower the deficit at the same time.

CBO: Baucus bill costs $829 billion, reduces deficit by $81 billion – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room

From The Washington Post‘s analysis:

According to the CBO, Congress‘s official arbiter of the cost of legislation, the Finance Committee measure would expand coverage to an additional 29 million Americans by 2019 by dramatically expanding Medicaid coverage for the poor and by subsidizing private insurance for low- and middle-income Americans.

The $829 billion cost would be more than offset by reducing spending on Medicare and other federal health programs by about $400 billion over the next decade, and by imposing a series of fees on insurance companies, drugmakers, medical device manufacturers and other sectors of the health industry that stand to gain millions of new customers under the legislation

In addition, the package would raise $200 billion more by levying a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost insurance policies — the “Cadillac” plans that cost more than $8,000 for individuals or $21,000 for a family

All told, the package would reduce federal budget deficits by $81 billion over the next decade, the CBO forecast, adding that the savings probably would continue to accumulate well into the future.

Budget Report: Senate Finance Panel’s Health-Care Bill Wouldn’t Raise Deficit – washingtonpost.com

But don’t take their word for it, read the full report for yourself:

CBO Baucus

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