Letter: Health reform costs inflated

In response to "The health care tug-of-war" [Letters, March 23], one letter writer claimed that the projected cost of the Obama health care plan has nearly doubled. However, a careful reading of the Congressional Budget Office report reveals that the net cost will actually decrease.

According to the CBO report, "The current estimate of the gross costs of the coverage provisions . . . is about $50 billion higher than last year's projection; however, the other budgetary effects of those provisions, which partially offset those gross costs, also have increased in CBO and [the Joint Committee on Taxation's] estimates . . . leading to the small decrease in the net 10-year tally."

Some confusion arises because of the number of years included in the original CBO estimate and the latest CBO estimate. "The 11-year figure is much higher because it includes three additional years of full implementation of the coverage provisions of the law," according to FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. "Comparing the eight years that are common to both estimates, the net cost is now predicted to be $772 billion, or about half a percent lower than originally estimated."So, projected health care costs over the common eight years is not the original $900 billion, but rather $772 billion, a projected savings of $128 billion.

Elizabeth Oldendorp, Massapequa