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CBO: Kennedy Health Bill Would Cost $1 Trillion Over 10 Yrs

By Patrick Yoest, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A preliminary analysis released Monday shows a $1 trillion cost for health-care legislation sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass, while a net 16 million people in the U.S. would obtain insurance coverage as a result of the bill.

Kennedy's bill, which the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will consider on Wednesday, aims to extend access to health insurance coverage to the nation's 46 million people currently lacking it. The non- partisan Congressional Budget Office, in a letter to Kennedy on Monday, said enacting the proposal "would result in a net increase in federal budget deficits of about $1 trillion over the 2010-2019 period."

The Joint Committee on Taxation, a non-partisan Congressional panel that provides analysis of tax legislation, partnered with CBO on the estimate.

The analysis estimates that the bill would result in 16 million more people carrying insurance coverage.

It derived that figure by estimating that 39 million people would obtain insurance through health insurance "exchanges," in which individuals would compare and purchase coverage. Fifteen million people would no longer receive insurance coverage through their employer, while "coverage from other sources would fall by about eight million."

-By Patrick Yoest, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-3554; patrick.yoest@ dowjones.com

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  06-15-091740ET
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