After the Friday release of the House Democrat leadership's health reform discussion draft, the
Republican Conference has compiled a list of important numbers relevant to the legislation:
852 - Pages in the bill
120 million - Number of individuals who could lose their current coverage as a result of the
government-run plan reimbursing at Medicare rates created in 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
$88,200 - Definition of "low-income" family of four for purposes of health insurance subsidies
Trillions - New federal spending, which likely could exceed the $1.6 trillion reported price tag of Senate
Finance Committee Chairman Baucus' legislation
32 - Entitlement programs the bill creates, expands, or extends
48 - Additional offices, bureaus, commissions, programs, and bureaucracies the bill creates over and
above the entitlement programs listed above
1,367 - Uses of the word "shall," representing new duties to be carried out by federal bureaucrats and
mandates on individuals, businesses, and States
$10 billion - Minimum loss sustained by taxpayers every year due to Medicare fraud; the government-
run health plan utilizes the same ineffective anti-fraud statutes and procedures that have kept
Medicare on the Government Accountability Office's list of high-risk programs for two decades
$1.75 billion - Mandatory spending on home visitation services that would educate parents on "skills to
interact with their child"
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
legislation, which re-directs savings from Medicare to finance new entitlements for younger
Americans
Posted June 23, 2009