WASHINGTON -- Congress' nonpartisan budget analyst added new fuel to the Medicare debate late Friday with new, higher cost estimates for a prescription drug program that has already drawn fire for its soaring price tag.
In a letter to lawmakers, the Congressional Budget Office said its estimate for the drug benefits for the 10-year period ending in 2015 had grown by $54 billion since January. No cumulative 10-year total was provided, but a separate CBO letter used figures that indicated a total over that period of $849 billion.
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Ever since they were enacted in 2003 for a presumable $400 billion 10-year price tag, the cost has crept steadily upward.
Lawmakers of both parties have accused the White House of withholding information about the program's true costs to win conservatives' votes that were crucial to congressional passage, a charge the administration denied.
Two months after passage, the Bush administration raised the 10-year cost estimate to $534 billion.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-medicare-costs,0,6289629.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlinesMust be Friday