The government’s top expert on Medicare costs told colleagues last summer that he would be fired if he revealed that the actual cost of the pending Medicare prescription drug plan was far more expensive than the White House was acknowledging. This according to a report by Knight Ridder. When the House passed the bill in November, the White House said the program would cost just under $400 billion over the next decade. But since then the White House has revised the estimate to be upwards of $150 billion more. It is widely assumed the Medicare bill would not have passed Congress if legislators knew program’s actual cost. The White House had known the program would likely cost about about $550 billion based on calculations by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Before the Congressional vote, the Center’s chief Medicare actuary, Richard Foster, wrote an email to friends saying he would be fired if he revealed the higher estimate. Fost was also barred from answering questions about the bill’s cost.