Obama

November 17 - Pricewaterhouse Cooper has released a study on the costs and coverage potential of President-Elect Barack Obama's health care reform plan.  The study concludes that the cost of Obama's plan would rise from $75 billion in 2009 to $130 billion in 2018.  These projections are partially based upon data of Massachusetts' attempt to create universal healthcare, and do not account for some unspecified savings promised by Obama's plan.  PwC's study also states that the Obama plan would extend insurance coverage to 30 million out of 47 million currently uninsured.   The study goes on to consider the implications of Obama's proposal for different players within the system--providers, insurers, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and employers-and offers five "big ideas" for improving healthcare.

November 12 - The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, plans to release a health care reform proposal. The Journal reports that Baucus' plan resembles the one put forward by Obama campaign in many respects: both focus on covering as many of the country's 46 million uninsured as possible, and both feature a Health Insurance Exchange. Baucus' plan, however, would feature a mandate to purchase coverage, one of the major points of contention between Senators Obama and Clinton during the primaries. The report gives only indirect indications of the plan's cost:

"Some experts predict that a health system covering all Americans would necessitate $100 billion to $150 billion in new Federal spending per year. But savings from the reforms proposed earlier in this Call to Action and the financing mechanisms in this section can make the net cost of reform much smaller."

November 11 - Democratic representative Pete Stark, chair of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, declared yesterday that Congress should waive its PAYGO rules to pass a fundamental reform of the healthcare system and to avoid massive Medicare payment cuts to physicians. Stark cited the waiving of PAYGO for other spending measures like the $700 billion dollar rescue package and Iraq war costs, and asked why large numbers of uninsured should not represent an equally urgent priority. US Budget Watch estimated that plan for health care reform put forward by the Obama campaign would add $52 to $106 billion to the deficit in 2013.

November 6 - Yesterday, Professor Paul Caron of the popular blog TaxProf raised the question of what tax policy would look like under the Obama-Biden administration. He compiled the answers of fifteen tax professors from across the country and political spectrum. US Budget Watch has writen on the tax policies on which Senator Obama has campaigned. However, Steve Johnson of UNLV argues that:

"It would be a mistake to expect that either candidate's campaign tax planks will bear close correspondence to tax legislation actually enacted in the next 4 years."