Pelosi Asks for CBO Scoring of Three Public Option Variations

Roll Call (10/9, Newmyer) reports, "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is signaling she is flexible on the final form of a public insurance option in the healthcare overhaul and is seeking budget scores on both the preferred liberal and moderate approaches before making a final call." Speaker Pelosi said that she supports "a robust public plan tied to Medicare rates," but "many moderates prefer a plan with negotiated rates."

So, she asked the CBO "to score three variations of a public insurance option," CQ Today (10/8, Epstein) noted. The "robust" version, "which would save an estimated $110 billion over 10 years, and two variations of a public plan based on negotiated rates with healthcare providers. She said the estimate of savings for such plans is $25 billion over 10 years." Still, "those numbers are not official CBO scores yet; a formal analysis will take several days."