Boost for Baucus on cost of health reform

Max Baucus, the centrist Democratic senator, got a boost from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday night when it estimated his healthcare reform plan would cost $829bn over the next decade – well within the Obama administration’s upper ceiling.

The release of the CBO estimates, which also projects that the bill would reduce the overall fiscal deficit by $81bn over the next decade, means the focus now switches to the critical vote of the Senate finance committee.