Obama-Backed Proposal on Medicare May Save $2 Billion, CBO Estimates

President Obama continued his campaign on behalf of health-care reform Saturday by focusing his radio and Internet address on the impact of insurance costs on small businesses.

The president said that many small businesses are forced to offer less generous plans, drop coverage or shut their doors because they cannot afford the rising cost of care.

"This is unsustainable, it's unacceptable, and it's going to change when I sign health insurance reform into law," he vowed.

At the same time, the administration received mixed news from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan group that estimates the cost of legislation.

The CBO concluded that an administration-backed proposal to give a new commission power to ratchet down what Medicare pays doctors and hospitals would save just $2 billion over the next decade. Democrats had hoped the proposal would score higher savings that could help provide coverage for about 47 million uninsured Americans.

White House budget director Peter Orszag wrote on his blog that the purpose of the proposal was never short-term savings but rather "game-changers" that could lead to dramatic shifts in how medicine is delivered and paid for.

The president, who was knocked off-message for two days by a heated debate over race and the arrest of his friend Henry Louis Gates Jr., attempted to reclaim the agenda.

"Now I know there are those who are urging us to delay reform. And some of them have actually admitted that this is a tactic designed to stop any reform at all," he said in the taped message. "Some have even suggested that, regardless of its merits, health-care reform should be stopped as a way to inflict political damage on my administration. I'll leave it to them to explain that to the American people."

Staff writer Ceci Connolly contributed to this report.