As Obama Wades Into Health Debate, Tough Choices Await
"As the legislative debate over health care intensifies on Capitol Hill, there is growing clamor for President Obama to step in," the Washington Post reports. The administration has so far left the crafting of legislation in the hands of Congress, but a series of tough choices await the President, who at some point must define "what he"ll accept and what he won"t" in a final bill. His job is made more difficult by recent cost estimates. "A preliminary estimate of the Senate Finance Committee"s draft bill put the price tag of universal coverage at $1.6 trillion over 10 years. That was considerably more than anyone anticipated and forced the committee to delay work on the bill. The cost of the incomplete plan drafted by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was pegged at about $1 trillion over 10 years, but the CBO said that would still leave 30 million (rather than the current 46 million) people without coverage."
Mental Health