July 20, 2009
The Democrats’ Healthcare Bill - By the Numbers

Important numbers relevant to the House Democrats’ 1,018-page “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act:”

114 million — Number of individuals who could lose their current coverage under the bill, according to non-partisan actuaries at the Lewin Group.

4.7 million — Number of jobs that could be lost as a result of taxes on businesses that cannot afford to provide health insurance coverage, according to a model developed by Council of Economic Advisors Chair Christina Romer.

$818 billion — Total new taxes on individuals who cannot afford health coverage, and employers who cannot afford to provide coverage that meet federal bureaucrats’ standards.

$1.28 trillion — New federal spending in the next ten years, according to a Congressional Budget Office score of selected elements of the bill.

6% — Percentage of all that new spending occurring in the bill’s first three years—representing a debt and tax “time bomb” in the program’s later years that will explode for future generations.

$88,200 — Definition of “low-income” family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies.

33 — Entitlement programs the bill creates, expands, or extends—an increase from an earlier draft.

53 — Additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, and bureaucracies the bill creates over and above the entitlement expansions—also an increase from the discussion draft.

1,683 — Uses of the word “shall,” representing new duties for bureaucrats and mandates on individuals, businesses, and States—and an increase of 306 mandates from the discussion draft.

$10 billion — Minimum loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud; the government-run health plan does not reform the ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept Medicare on the Government Accountability Office’s list of high-risk programs for two decades.

Zero — Prohibitions on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid from using cost-effectiveness research to impose delays to or denials for access to life-saving treatments.

2017 — Year Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will be exhausted — a date unchanged by the bill, which re-directs savings from Medicare to fund new entitlements for younger Americans.

$2,500 — Promised savings for each American family from health reform, according to then-Senator Obama’s campaign pledge—savings which the Congressional Budget Office has confirmed will not materialize, as the bill will not slow the growth of health care costs.