AP source: House Dems trim health bill to $871B

[TomCADem]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are aiming to scale back the cost of their health care bill to well below President Barack Obama's preferred price tag by giving the government a strong hand in selling insurance in competition with the private market.

Obama has sought to spend no more than $900 billion over a 10-year period. The initial cost of the House bill was more than $1 trillion. On Tuesday, House Democratic leaders received a new cost estimate of $871 billion from congressional budget umpires who measured a robust version of a so-called public option for health insurance, according to a Democratic aide.

The figures were preliminary because no final decision on the design of the public plan had been made, said the aide, who requested anonymity in discussing the bill because the deliberations were private.

House Democrats worked on their legislation as senior Senate Democrats signaled they intend to try to strip the insurance industry of its exemption from antitrust laws as part of an upcoming debate over health care.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091021/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul

[democrat2thecore]

1. Meanwhile - no single payer and we hand private insurers new business

Making Public Option only available to, "those who qualify" is NOT the original Public Option proposal. It has successfully been redefined as basically a Medicaid on steroids. It's all a smokescreen to keep private insurance in business and single-payer a non-issue.

Change? Yes, and the profiteers of the health insurance industry are loving what they see. Make no mistake.