Washington

In its $2.4 trillion budget for 2005, the Bush administration pegs the cost of the new Medicare reform law over the next decade at $534 billion. That's about a third more than the Congressional Budget Office estimate of $395 billion lawmakers used when the controversial legislation passed after a months-long debate.

The new Medicare law makes prescription drug benefits available to the more than 40 million Americans covered under the massive government program, and also gives insurance companies and private health plans a role. Administration officials added that predicting a price for Medicare includes a range of unknowns, such as how much drug prices will rise, how many seniors will buy drug coverage and how many of those enrolled in the program will switch to private health plans.

Word of the new estimate has angered both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, while the CBO has said it is standing by its original cost estimate.

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