President Biden’s budget proposal focuses on expanding access to healthcare and lowering the cost of prescription drugs.
To extend the life of Medicare’s hospital trust fund, the budget would increase the number of negotiable drugs and allow negotiations to begin sooner.
The plan is based on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which gave Medicare the power to negotiate the price of up to 20 drugs each year.
The IRA was passed by a Democratic-only vote last year, but some Republicans have already expressed their intention to repeal it.
Another IRA provision driving up budgets is the requirement to pay rebates to Medicare if drug companies raise prices faster than inflation. Under the White House proposal, that requirement would be extended to the commercial market as well.
The budget also seeks to extend the $35 insulin cap to the private sector. Under an IRA, a Medicare beneficiary will not pay out of pocket insulin costs above his $35.
A proposal to cap the cost of all Americans was rejected by Senate Republicans.
The White House budget also includes a proposal to expand the Obamacare program.
It calls for a permanent expansion of enhanced subsidies for the exchange’s health plan, which currently expires at the end of 2025. With higher incomes.
The budget also provides “Medicaid-like” benefits for eligible people in states that have not yet expanded Medicaid coverage, combined with financial incentives to ensure states maintain existing expansion. Suggest a scope of application.
Republicans have begun blowing up elements of the budget before it is officially announced, and are unlikely to support the proposal.
The White House called the budget a “blueprint” to build on progress made during the administration’s first two years. Republicans “take a very different approach,” claiming they want to increase the nation’s debt.
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