New Cost Estimate Tops $1 Trillion: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a letter to congressional leaders this week, touting the administration’s early success in implementing certain provisions of health care reform. Meanwhile, officials from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported on Tuesday that the health care reform legislation will cost about $115 billion more in discretionary spending over the next 10 years than the original cost projections. The CBO representative pointed out that if lawmakers approve this additional spending, the total cost of the health care reform law will exceed $1 trillion over the next 10 years. A Republican spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee responded saying, “If Congress were to approve all of this new discretionary funding authorized in the health care bill, almost all of the administration’s highly touted savings would be made null and void.”