Party Like It's 1994
Ever wanted to read the Congressional Budget Office's evaluation of the 1994 health-care reform plan? Well, thanks to my colleague Lori Montgomery, you can. (Warning: it's a 10 megabyte download.)
On page 28, you'll see something a little dispiriting. The bill envisioned $927 billion in subsidies between 1998 and 2004. Assuming that's in 1994 dollars, that's about $1.3 trillion. And that was at a time when there were far fewer uninsured, and health-care insurance cost far less. Some of that was probably offset by the cuts in Medicaid eligibility, but it looks like that plan was a lot more generous. Worth keeping in mind as we haggle over the final price tag for health-care reform.
By
Ezra Klein
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October 6, 2009; 5:26 PM ET
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Posted by: Hopeful9 | October 7, 2009 9:43 AM | Report abuse
Possibly due to the much worse budget and economic situation? I guess reality shouldn't matter.
Posted by: DavidBerkian | October 7, 2009 10:44 AM | Report abuse
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I guess, but what lessons am I supposed to draw from failed plan had more generous subsidies? Don't make subsidies too big or it will fail? Or today's proposed subsidies must be too small because people in 1993 were wiser?