Estimated Budgetary Effects of Subtitle I of Reconciliation Recommendations for Prescription Drug Legislation

July 8, 2022

Cost Estimate

As Posted by the Senate Committee on Finance on July 6, 2022

Summary

CBO estimates that enacting this legislation would result in a net decrease in the unified deficit totaling $287.6 billion over the 2022-2031 period. That decrease in the deficit would result from a decrease in direct spending of $249.2 billion and an increase in revenues of $38.4 billion.

Some of those budgetary effects are associated with programs that are classified as off-budget. The decrease in the on-budget deficit over that period would be $276.7 billion.

This estimate is based on language posted by the Senate Committee on Finance.

Data and Supplemental Information

Senate Finance Committee Language

Corrections and Updates

On July 13, 2022, CBO reposted this table to correct one of the notes. No budgetary estimates were changed. The corrected note indicates that about 15 fewer drugs would be introduced in total over the next 30 years because of the legislation, according to CBO’s corrected estimates, rather than about 10 in the estimate that was initially posted. The corrected estimates incorporate additional effects of the legislative language that were inadvertently omitted.