The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) came out with preliminary projections of the impact of Senator Kennedy's health reform bill. CBO had a projected cost of $1 trillion, with an addition 16 million people getting insured over this period. Republicans were quick to put the cost at $62,500 for each additional insured person. This is a good joke, but has no place in serious policy discussions. The relevant question is the cost per year ($6,250). If the projections were done over 20 years, then the cost would be $125,000 per insured person using the Republican methodology. It is also important to remember that the number of people who are uninsured at least part of the year is over 80 million. The generally used number of 45 million uninsured refers to the number of people who go the entire year without insurance. Presumably there will be a reduction in the number of people who are uninsured for part of the year as a result of the Kennedy plan.Serious analysis would take this into account also.
--Dean Baker
