WASHINGTON — The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he revealed administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed the prescription-drug plan, he has alleged.
When the House passed the benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months, the administration's own analysts in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that.
Withholding the higher cost projections was important because the White House was facing a revolt from 13 conservative House Republicans who had vowed to vote against the Medicare drug bill if it cost more than $400 billion.
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