Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee want a hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, following an exchange last week in which she was not sure of details about the healthcare law’s effect on the deficit.

Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) requested the hearing Monday in a letter to Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) They said the committee should look into revised cost estimates for the Affordable Care Act before marking up a budget resolution for next year.

The senators cited a section of the White House budget request that asks for an additional $111 billion for subsidies to help people buy private insurance. They said the request shows that the healthcare law has gotten more expensive since it was passed.

“It is a major adverse fiscal development that only two years after the president’s health care law was passed, the costs seem to be soaring,” the senators said.

Democrats have said the extra $111 billion for insurance subsidies is a result of legislation that moved people from Medicaid into subsidized private coverage. The White House budget proposal includes reductions in Medicaid spending that more than offset the extra money for subsidies.

Sebelius has testified at least five times about the HHS budget request, including a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing last week at which Johnson questioned the subsidy request as well as the revenue lost when HHS abandoned work on the CLASS Act, which would have provided insurance for long-term care.

Without revenue from the CLASS program, the healthcare law will reduce the deficit by roughly $125 billion, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

View original article