President Obama has requested a huge hike in spending for the mandatory health insurance exchanges in fiscal year 2013 budget, reports heartland.org. Additional outlays of $111 billion requested, will bring the total subsidy funding to $478 billion over the seven years the exchanges are slated to be active.
The huge figure requested, may negate any estimated advantages of his signature health care law in lowering the federal deficit.
Analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shows the plan would pile up $6.39 trillion in cumulative deficits over a 10-year period, but that figure is about $294 billion less than the White House estimated in February for the same 2013-2022 period.
At a recent Senate hearing, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius admitted she did not know how the new request would affect Obama’s mandate – whether it would shrink or grow the deficit.
Source-Medindia