Obamacare Is Very, Very Expensive - Part I

President Obama has largely taken a hands off approach to health care reform.  Instead he has given the Democratic House and Senate tremendous latitude in shaping their own bills.  

I presume he is doing this for a couple of reasons.  1) He is sheltered from political fallout if a poorly imagined bill is floated to the public.  He can simply say "that's not my bill".  2) The House and Senate will likely produce multiple bills and he will then choose the one he likes the most at the end of the process.

Currently, there are no less that eight health care reform bills being worked on in both the House and Congress.  This makes having a genuine health care debate difficult since each plan is radically different than the others.  But as details of each plan emerge I'll break down the cost of each one as best I can. 

1) The Kennedy Bill - This was the first bill floated to the public.  Prior to its release Obama hinted that this was his favorite of the bunch.  This plan does include the public insurance option and the CBO estimates this plan will cost upwards of $1 trillion and still leave 36 million people uninsured through 2017. Obama quickly retreated from this bill after such a negative reaction from the public. 

2) Senate Finance Committee Bill - The CBO estimates this plan will cost upwards of $1.6 trillion. A private consulting group Health Systems Innovations Network estimates the cost of this bill to be upwards of $4 trillion. Congressional Democrats are now "rethinking" this bill as well.

3) After months of work, House Democrats released an 852-page bill which would establish a public plan, require that everyone carry insurance, and require employers to provide coverage or pay a fee of 8 percent of bankroll. The Democrats won't even allow the CBO to score the cost of this program (it's cost would dwarf the other plans).

Obamacare is being "marketed" as a way to control health care costs through increased competition.  But as the above numbers indicate the controlling of costs is nowhere to be found.  These numbers are reckless and fiscally irresponsible.

As additional health care bills are floated to the public, I'll analyze the cost of these as well.