WASHINGTON, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate Finance Committee's healthcare reform bill would cost $829 billion over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
The bill also would meet President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the federal budget deficit by 2019, trimming the deficits by $81 billion, The Washington Post reported.
The bill also would expand coverage to 94 percent of Americans by 2019, up from 83 percent now, the CBO said.
Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has said panel members would have a "reasonable" amount of time to review the CBO's assessment before voting on the bill.
The vote is expected to be close, with observers saying passage could rest with a few senators who indicated that the CBO's report could influence them, the Post said.
In a letter to Baucus and Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee's ranking minority member, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf said the analysis was preliminary because the committee hadn't framed its measure in legislative language.
