US healthcare bill to cut deficit, CBO says

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Congressional budget analysts said on Thursday a broad healthcare overhaul would cut the US deficit over 10 years and sharply expand insurance coverage, boosting the momentum for final passage in the House of Representatives.

President Barack Obama postponed a scheduled visit to Indonesia and Australia to help round up support on what is expected to be a close vote on Sunday on his top legislative priority.

House Democratic leaders unveiled the final changes to the overhaul, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated would expand coverage at a cost of USD 940 billion over 10 years and cut the deficit by USD 138 billion in the same period through new fees, taxes and cost-saving measures.

Obama said the healthcare bill, which has faced solid Republican opposition, represented "the most significant effort to reduce deficits since the Balanced Budget Act" of 1993.

"This is history, and this is progress," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the overhaul. The bill would represent the biggest changes to the USD 2.5 trillion healthcare system in the past four decades.

After weeks of wrangling over the package to ensure the numbers came out favorably, House leaders presented the final revisions to Democrats at a morning caucus and posted them on the Rules Committee website later on Thursday.

"It took some time, but we are very pleased," Pelosi said after the meeting.

The overhaul would extend coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans, the CBO estimated, and ban insurance practices like refusing coverage to those with pre-existing medical conditions.

It requires all Americans to have health insurance, but gives subsidies to help low- and middle-income workers pay for it. The bill also expands Medicaid, the federal health program for the poor.

The final package of changes also included Obama's proposed revamp of the federal student loan program, which would boost aid for needy students.

The AFL-CIO, the largest labor union federation, endorsed the final version, which includes a weakened version of a tax on high-cost "Cadillac" insurance plans the union had feared would hit union members.

"It is not a perfect bill. But we are realistic enough to know it's time for the deliberations to stop and for progress to begin," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said.