Will The CBO Play Along?

David Cutler, a Harvard economist who worked on the Obama campaign, argues that healthcare reform will save money in the long run:

Health care reform will require additional revenues in the short run. Over the longer-run, however, health system savings are greater than most estimates of covering the uninsured, and reform should be able to pay for coverage expansions as well as contribute to long-run deficit reduction.

David Leonhardt wonders how this will hold up to scrutiny:


It’s going to be interesting see whether the Obama administration tries to make a version of this argument to pass a health-care reform bill and whether the Congressional Budget Office, which will be responsible for coming up with the all-important budget number for the bill, will buy the argument.
2006-2011 archives for The Daily Dish, featuring Andrew Sullivan