Budget office estimates health-care law could cost more than $1 trillion

From The Washington Post:

President Obama's new health-care law could potentially add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending over the next 10 years, if Congress approves all the additional spending called for in the legislation, congressional budget referees said Tuesday.

That would push the 10-year cost of the overhaul above $1 trillion -- an unofficial limit the Obama administration set early on.

The Congressional Budget Office said the added spending includes $10 billion to $20 billion in administrative costs to federal agencies carrying out the law, as well as $34 billion for community health centers and $39 billion for Native American health care.

The costs were not in earlier estimates by the budget office, although Republican lawmakers argued that they should have been.

Congressional estimators also said they hadn't had enough time to run the numbers. Costs could go higher, because the legislation authorizes several programs without setting specific funding levels.

The health-care law provides coverage to more than 30 million people who are now uninsured, offering tax credits to help purchase health insurance through competitive markets that open for business in 2014.