What? You haven't already read CBO's just released "The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2008 to 2017!
Great prose? Certainly not. Great news? Absolutely (if you know where to look).
Consider this snippet which appears on pages 58-59 ...
"The current estimate for Part D spending is significantly lower than CBO's 2006 estimates, for two reasons. First, Medicare's payments for prescription drugs under Part D are largely based on competitive bids that drug plans submit to provide coverage. The bids submitted for calendar year 2007 are much lower than expected-about 15 percent below the 2006 bids, on average. As a result, CBO reduced its projection of the per capita costs of providing drug coverage. In addition, recent information from the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicates that a larger-than-expected number of the Medicare beneficiaries who are not enrolled in Part D have some other form of drug coverage that is comparable to Part D. Because CBO expects that many of those beneficiaries will retain their existing coverage rather than enroll in Part D, it has lowered its estimate of the ultimate participation rate from 87 percent to 78 percent of Medicare beneficiaries."
"In its estimate for the Medicare Modernization Act, which established Part D benefits, CBO projected net spending for Part D at $32 billion for 2006 and $518 billion for 2007 to 2013. (CBO's overall estimate that the legislation would cost $395 billion from 2004 to 2013 included savings that would occur elsewhere in the budget that would be attributable to the creation of Part D and to the effects of other provisions unrelated to the drug benefit.) CBO's current estimate of net spending for Part D for 2007 to 2013 is $136 billion lower than the original forecast, a difference of about 26 percent."
Amazing as that news is, I do not predict a movie deal for the book.
Great prose? Certainly not. Great news? Absolutely (if you know where to look).
Consider this snippet which appears on pages 58-59 ...
"The current estimate for Part D spending is significantly lower than CBO's 2006 estimates, for two reasons. First, Medicare's payments for prescription drugs under Part D are largely based on competitive bids that drug plans submit to provide coverage. The bids submitted for calendar year 2007 are much lower than expected-about 15 percent below the 2006 bids, on average. As a result, CBO reduced its projection of the per capita costs of providing drug coverage. In addition, recent information from the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services indicates that a larger-than-expected number of the Medicare beneficiaries who are not enrolled in Part D have some other form of drug coverage that is comparable to Part D. Because CBO expects that many of those beneficiaries will retain their existing coverage rather than enroll in Part D, it has lowered its estimate of the ultimate participation rate from 87 percent to 78 percent of Medicare beneficiaries."
"In its estimate for the Medicare Modernization Act, which established Part D benefits, CBO projected net spending for Part D at $32 billion for 2006 and $518 billion for 2007 to 2013. (CBO's overall estimate that the legislation would cost $395 billion from 2004 to 2013 included savings that would occur elsewhere in the budget that would be attributable to the creation of Part D and to the effects of other provisions unrelated to the drug benefit.) CBO's current estimate of net spending for Part D for 2007 to 2013 is $136 billion lower than the original forecast, a difference of about 26 percent."
Amazing as that news is, I do not predict a movie deal for the book.
