WASHINGTON, D.C. - Montana's Congressman, Denny Rehberg, today released the following statement after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released an updated report indicating that the recent Supreme Court Ruling on the President’s health care law would increase insurance premiums by about $400 per family in addition to the $2,100 per family premium increase CBO predicted in 2009.

“When it passed, I warned that President Obama’s bill merely shifted the rising costs of health care from an overburdened consumer to an overburdened taxpayer while doing nothing to actually reduce the underlying cost.  And since the taxpayer and the consumer are the same person, today’s report means Montana families are going to have to find another $400 a year to buy a product they are now legally required to buy.  And that’s on top of the $2,100 per family increase they’re already faced with.  Montanans don’t need the federal government threatening them.  What Montanans need is true health reform to lower costs so they can afford to take care of their loved ones.”

In addition to increase premium costs, CBO estimated that the 21 tax increases over the next ten years will cost taxpayers $1 trillion.

While Medicare expenditures are reduced by $716 billion over ten years, overall, spending on new entitlement programs – Medicaid expansion and insurance premium subsidies – costs $1.6 trillion.