Soaring cost estimates of health law spark concern

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Cost estimates for a key portion of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul law have ballooned by $111 billion from last year’s budget, and a senior Republican lawmaker on Friday demanded an explanation.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., wants to know by Monday why the estimated cost of helping millions of middle-class Americans buy health insurance has jumped by about 30 percent for an eight-year period, from 2014 to 2021.

Administration officials say the explanation lies in budget technicalities and that there are no significant changes in the program that would raise concerns.

Cost estimates for new government programs can be wide off the mark. For example, the actual cost of President George W. Bush’s Medicare prescription-drug benefit came in lower than estimated, so it wasn’t as big a drag on federal finances as initially forecast.