CBO clarifies its analysis of healthcare overhaul spending

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A chunk of spending on President Obama’s healthcare overhaul is actually money for current federal programs, congressional budget scorekeepers said Wednesday, in a twist to the partisan dispute over the law’s price tag.

Earlier this week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released an analysis listing at least $115 billion in spending under the healthcare law that was not fully accounted for at the time Congress passed the legislation.

Republicans said it was evidence of hidden costs that would wipe out most of the savings that the administration expects to reap under the law.

But the budget office now says that about $86 billion of that total represents funding for ongoing programs, which analysts routinely assume will be continued from year to year. Those programs include grants to community health centers and Indian healthcare.

-- Associated Press