Budget office: Obama's health law reduces deficit

ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press

RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Congress' budget scorekeepers are taking a new look at President Barack Obama's health care law - and they still say it is expected to reduce federal deficits.

It's the first in-depth look by nonpartisan experts since the Supreme Court upheld most of the law last month.

The court made one exception: States don't have to sign on to a planned expansion of Medicaid for their low-income residents. The Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday that that could reduce the number of people covered by several million. But taxpayers would also save on costs.

Overall, spending cuts and tax increases in Obama's law more than offset new spending,

Repealing the law, as Republicans want to do, would increase the deficit by $109 billion from 2013 to 2022.

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