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- Blog Post
During Congressional deliberations on health care legislation during the 111th Congress, CBO prepared numerous analyses and estimates regarding the impact of various proposals on the federal budget and on aspects of health care and health insurance that were of interest to policymakers. That process began in early 2009 and continued past the enactment of the legislation in March of this year. In many cases, those estimates and analyses were prepared in collaboration with the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation.
- Report
Selected CBO Publications Related to Health Care Legislation, 2009-2010
- Report
Letter to the Honorable Paul Ryan
- Blog Post
In a letter sent today to Congressman Paul Ryan, we described our analysis of the effects on prescription drug prices of certain provisions of the health legislation enacted in March.
- Report
Letter to the Honorable Paul Ryan
- Blog Post
Today I am speaking to a conference sponsored by the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at the University of Southern California. My remarks review CBO’s analysis of the economic effects of the health legislation enacted in March. Those effects can be divided into two pieces: the effects on the five-sixths of the economy outside the health sector, and the effects on the health sector itself.
- Presentation
CBO Director Doug Elmendorf's presentation at the Schaeffer Center of the University of Southern California
- Blog Post
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides health care at little or no charge to more than 5 million veterans annually. VA is operating its medical care system and associated research program with a budget of $48 billion for 2010, a rise of 8 percent in nominal terms (without adjusting for inflation) from 2009. That budget grew at an average nominal rate exceeding 9 percent annually between 2004 and 2009. Unlike programs like Medicare and Medicaid, VA’s health care program receives its funding through the annual appropriation process.
- Report
CBO projects that the future costs for VA to treat enrolled veterans will be substantially higher (in inflation-adjusted dollars) than recent appropriations for that purpose.
- Blog Post
Four years ago, Medicare began providing outpatient prescription drug benefits for senior citizens and people with disabilities. Known as Part D, the program uses private plans to provide coverage for prescription drugs to enrollees. Those plans negotiate payment rates with pharmacies and rebates from drug manufacturers while competing for enrollees. Such competition provides incentives for plans to control their costs; one important way in which plans seek to control costs is by encouraging the use of generic drugs.