WASHINGTON NEWS

Media coverage of the healthcare issue last night and this morning tended to portray the White House and Congressional Democrats as struggling to cope with new CBO forecasts on the cost of their reform plans. The CBS Evening News was the only network broadcast to cover the story, reporting, "Today we learned more about the staggering sums involved. At least a trillion dollars over the next ten years according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office." Moreover, "there are growing concerns that President Obama lacks a realistic plan to pay for this sweeping reform."
The Washington Post says that Obama's "plan to expand health coverage to the uninsured is likely to dig the nation deeper into debt unless policymakers adopt politically painful controls on spending, such as sharp reductions in payments to doctors, hospitals and other providers, congressional budget analysts said yesterday." The AP says Senate Democrats were "jolted by cost estimates as high as $1.6 trillion," and adds that they have "agreed to scale back planned subsidies for the uninsured and sought concessions totaling hundreds of billions of dollars from private industry Tuesday to defray the cost of sweeping health care legislation." The Wall Street Journal similarly reports that the Senate Finance Committee "wrestled...to bring down the total cost of its health-care package."
Under the headline "Dems Reel On Healthcare," The Hill reports that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus "initially planned to release his bill Wednesday, but he has pushed back his timetable because of cost estimate concerns." And "perhaps more importantly, the unity that Democrats touted earlier this year has cracked." The New York Times says Finance Committee Democrats are "alarmed" by CBO cost estimates," and quotes Sen. Kent Conrad saying, "It's clear there have got to be changes made to make the whole package affordable." USA Today reports that in an interview conducted Monday, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf "said the cost to insure those people will continue to rise, and savings from efforts to curb health care spending may be elusive."
Sebelius Criticizes Insurance Industry The AP reports that in an interview, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "said the 'ballpark' cost for providing full coverage seems to be about $1 trillion," and that "the budget office estimates suggested the price tag could get even bigger." Sebelius also said that "the insurance lobby won't be able to block a public health plan because most Americans realize they would be better off if the industry had competition."

source: http://www.usnews.com