Congressional Budget Office - Health care proposals would Raise Costs, Not Lower them

The director of the Congressional Budget Office issued a warning to Democrats Thursday that their health care proposals would raise costs, not lower them.

One day after a Senate panel approved its version of the health care reform plan, the first committee to do so, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf gave a dose of bad medicine to a separate committee.

Asked by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., whether costs would be lowered -- also known as "bending the curve" -- Elmendorf responded: "The curve is being raised."

Subsidies to help uninsured people would raise federal health care spending, which is already growing at an unsustainable rate, Elmendorf explained at the hearing. The Medicare and Medicaid cuts that lawmakers have offered to pay for the coverage expansion aren't big enough to offset the cost trend, particularly in the long term, he said.

House Minority Leader John Boehner seized on the comments, calling on Democrats to scrap their plans in light of the assessment.

The remarks come at an inopportune time for congressional leaders who are trying push through and merge several different health care reform plans in the coming weeks, on orders from President Obama.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid voiced frustration with Elmendorf, who in recent months has unwittingly set back health care efforts with his office's unflattering analyses of the cost effects of the plans being floated.

"What he should do is run for Congress," Reid said when asked about the latest assessment. - FOX News Story