Healthcare reform

WASHINGTON, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Congressional Budget Office said the healthcare-reform plan of Sen. Max Baucus would cost $829 billion and end up lowering the federal budget deficit.

The report released Wednesday is a boost to the proponents of reform, even if the plan by Baucus, D-Mont., hasn't been universally received by either Republicans or Democrats.

But it meets key demands by U.S. President Barack Obama in that it adds health insurance to a substantial number of those currently without coverage and "doesn't add one dime" to the deficit.

The CBO said the Baucus plan would increase coverage from 83 percent to 94 percent of Americans and, while it would cost a not-unsubstantial $829 billion by 2019, it would combine with new revenue and spending cuts -- read additional taxes and a cut to Medicare -- to show a net $81 billion deficit reduction.

Two Senate committees -- Baucus's comes from his Finance Committee -- have submitted different versions of healthcare reform and combining them would change the CBO's current calculus, as would the eventual reconciliation process with whatever legislation comes out of the House of Representatives.