HHS Refuses to Release Medicare Estimates: "Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson is refusing to make public or give congressional Democrats the Bush administration's estimates of the cost of last year's Medicare legislation.
... Bush and Thompson said repeatedly that the legislation would cost no more than $400 billion over 10 years, even as Medicare's top analyst forecast that it would cost at least $100 billion more.
``The range of our estimates was $500 billion to $600 billion all the way through the process,'' Richard Foster, Medicare's chief actuary, told a congressional panel in March. Bush and Thompson have said they were unaware of Foster's estimates until after Bush signed the Medicare law in December.
... ``The response is completely inadequate,'' Waxman said in a statement. ``The Administration is stonewalling our investigation. We are evaluating our next steps.'' "
- posted by geoff @ #