WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate Finance Committee healthcare reform legislation is the only one of five bills that won't add to the budget deficit, White House analysts say.

White House budget director Peter Orszag praised the Congressional Budget Office's analysis projecting the $829 billion measure would reduce the number of uninsured while not adding to the budget deficit, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The OMB also said the measure, shepherded by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., would trim the deficit by $81 billion, meeting President Barack Obama's goal of reducing the deficit by 2019.

The finance panel's bill "demonstrates that we can expand coverage and improve quality while being fiscally responsible," Orszag said.

One other healthcare reform measure is in the Senate while three are floating in the House.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid, D-Nev., called the CBO report "another important step down the road toward enacting comprehensive health insurance reform."

Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, said he was concerned insurers and healthcare entities would pass along the cost of new fees and taxes to consumers and the proposed Medicaid expansion would mean unfunded mandates for already cash-strapped states.

"There's a lot of things in there to be concerned about," Grassley said.

The Finance Committee could vote on the bill as early as Friday, the Post said. Democrats hope to win over at least one Republican committee member -- likely Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, the only Republican who has expressed any support. However, Snowe has urged Baucus to wait until next week for a final committee vote.

"It's a critical vote," she said. "I would rather have the comfort level of having had sufficient time to analyze it."



Copyright 2009 by United Press International

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