Did Obama Hide Damning Health-Care Report?

Following release of an official report that estimates "Obamacare" will cost $311 billion more than advertised and could force 14 million Americans off their employer-provided insurance, a new allegation has surfaced that the White House knew of the unflattering analysis weeks before the health-care bill was passed and intentionally hid it from Congress.

According to a controversial article in the American Spectator, the Medicare and Medicaid Office of the Actuary delivered the damning report to the Department of Health and Human Services weeks before Congress voted on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius refused to review it until after the vote.

"The reason we were given was that they did not want to influence the vote," an unnamed HHS source reportedly told American Spectator.

"We know a copy was sent to the White House via their legislative affairs staff," the HHS staffer reportedly said, "and there were a number of meetings here almost right after the analysis was submitted to the secretary's office. Everyone went into lockdown, and people here were too scared to go public with the report."

The quotes were quickly picked up by FoxNews.com, Big Government.com, blogs and even radio host Rush Limbaugh:

"So everybody knew. Everybody knew that Obamacare would ratchet up the cost. That news was suppressed," Limbaugh said on his show yesterday. "Sebelius didn't want to read it on purpose, saying she 'didn't want to affect the vote.'"

More