Report: Obama Healthcare Overhaul Price Tag $75-Billion
(Washington, DC) -- The price tag of plans by President-elect Barack Obama to overhaul the nation's healthcare system is 75-billion-dollars. That's the word from consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which says it would break down to about 25-hundred-dollars per newly insured person. The report says the plan would offer health insurance to 95-percent of Americans. The cost would rise to one-trillion-dollars cumulatively by 2018, or about 130-billion-dollars per year.
Although the plan would provide coverage to many more people, the report also determined the overhaul could make some problems worse, such as the shortage of primary care doctors. The analysis adds, quote, "health reform may require reallocation of dollars already in the health system.'' According to the report, about 25-billion-dollars could come from existing payments to hospitals for uncompensated care. |