Healthcare Coverage Expansion To Create $1 Trillion Federal Deficit

There are now an estimated 46 million people in the US without any health insurance

A US Senate panel’ proposal to expand healthcare coverage will create federal deficit of about $1 trillion over 10 years and still leave millions without insurance. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that its calculations were preliminary, and stressed that the Democratic-sponsored legislation was still being drafted – Reuters reported (Richard Cowan).

But its estimates could fuel opposition to President Obama’s drive for healthcare reform, which critics fear would result in an expensive government takeover of the US healthcare system.

There are now an estimated 46 million people in the US without any health insurance, and devising a way to get them coverage has become an integral goal of Obama’s presidency.

In a letter to Senator Edward Kennedy, Chairman of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the non-partisan CBO estimated that once the reform plan was fully implemented, about 39 million people would get coverage through new insurance exchanges.