House Republicans have little avenue to pass major healthcare changes in the Democratic Senate and president, with one exception: the battle for the debt ceiling.
Important reasons: It’s not clear which cuts House Republicans will push for in lieu of raising the debt ceiling later this year. maybe this summer — but at least some say Medicare and Medicaid should be considered.
- Others say they want to avoid the program in anticipation of Democratic attacks.
What they say: Conservative Rep. Barry Loudermilk said “the entire board needs to be overhauled,” including forced spending on things like Medicare and Medicaid. “Discretion is the easiest to initiate, but the main driver of the national debt is obligation.”
- “Everything is on the table,” he added.
- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, asked about the eligibility review, told reporters on Thursday, “As Republicans, we will always protect Medicare and Social Security,” but did not elaborate. didn’t even mention Medicaid.)
- “We will protect it for the next generation, but we will scrutinize every dollar spent,” he added.
What to watch: Rep. Morgan Griffith, a member of the Freedom Caucus, which also participates in Energy and Commerce, said the change to Medicare won’t happen immediately.
- “People always panic whenever we talk about these cuts,” he told Axios. It will come a long way in the future and people will have time to understand and adjust.”
- He cited a full Social Security retirement age of 67 as one of the possible changes that could be discussed for Medicare, but one idea is to have a career doing manual labor and later said to keep the eligibility age low for those who have trouble keeping a job in the… life.
Reality check: Given the divided government, any kind of major entitlement change remains unlikely. But if there’s one thing that’s been clear about this year’s Maison so far, it’s that it’s unpredictable.
- And Republicans say they intend to push for some form of spending cuts as part of the debt ceiling debate.
- Rep. Byron Donalds, the anti-McCarthy alternate Republican chairman candidate at some point last week, said, “I don’t anticipate that at all,” when asked about changes to Medicare or Medicaid in the debt ceiling negotiations. .
- Rep. Brett Guthrie is set to chair the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, following controversy from a 2017 House ACA replacement bill that would have restricted Medicaid spending. He said he was interested in reviving the Republican plan and said the program should be “sustainable.”
- He said he had not discussed including that plan in the debt limit negotiations.
Opposite side: Democrats have already launched their attacks.
- “We’re going to protect Social Security and Medicare, act responsibly, and raise the debt ceiling,” Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters. “The debt ceiling should not be held hostage to this kind of conversation.”
- Moderate Republican Rep. Dave Joyce has acknowledged that some in his party will bring up a change of eligibility as part of the debt ceiling negotiations, but notes that the change will never make it through the Senate, saying they called “ambitious”.
- “It’s a great sound bite [where Democrats] A campaign can throw us all under a bus, but that’s no indication of what’s really going to happen at that time.
