Trump Takes Aim At Medicare, Medicaid In $4.4 Trillion Budget Proposal
From gutting safety net programs to funding the opioid epidemic battle, President Donald Trump's budget includes a host of health issues. The proposed cuts released Monday are unlikely to come to pass, as Congress controls the purse strings, but the plan is a good blueprint of the administration's priorities.
The New York Times:
White House Proposes $4.4 Trillion Budget That Adds $7 Trillion To Deficits
President Trump sent Congress a $4.4 trillion budget proposal on Monday outlining steep cuts to domestic programs, large increases in military spending and a ballooning federal deficit that illustrates how far Republicans have strayed from their longtime embrace of balanced budgets. The blueprint has little to no chance of being enacted as written and amounts to a vision statement by Mr. Trump, who as a businessman once called himself the “king of debt” and has overseen a federal spending spree that will earn him that title in an entirely different arena. (Davis, 2/12)
The Associated Press:
Trump's High-Spending Budget Reverses Longtime GOP Dogma
Trump's budget revived his calls for big cuts to domestic programs that benefit the poor and middle class, such as food stamps, housing subsidies and student loans. Retirement benefits would remain mostly untouched by Trump's plan, as he has pledged, though Medicare providers would absorb about $500 billion in cuts — a nearly 6 percent reduction. Some beneficiaries in Social Security's disability program would have to re-enter the workforce under proposed changes to eligibility rules. (2/13)
The Associated Press:
Winners And Losers Under Medicare Drug Plan In Trump Budget
Some Medicare beneficiaries would face higher prescription drug costs under President Donald Trump's budget even as the sickest patients save thousands of dollars, a complex trade-off that may make it harder to sell Congress on the plan in an election year. In budget documents, the administration said its proposals strike a balance between improving the popular "Part D" prescription benefit for the 42 million seniors enrolled, while correcting design flaws that increase program costs for taxpayers. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is expected to testify on the proposal later this week in Congress. (2/13)
The Washington Post:
Trump Wants To Overhaul America’s Safety Net With Giant Cuts To Housing, Food Stamps And Health Care
The spending plan reaches beyond the White House’s own power over the government social safety net and presumes lawmakers will overhaul long-standing entitlement programs for the poor in ways beyond what Congress so far has been willing to do. The changes call on lawmakers to eliminate the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and transform the rest of that program into a system of capped payments to states; convert food assistance into a hybrid of commodity deliveries and traditional cash benefits; and expand requirements that low-income people work to qualify for federal assistance. (Jan, Dewey, Goldstein and Stein, 2/12)
The Hill:
Trump Budget Seeks Savings Through ObamaCare Repeal
The White House budget for fiscal 2019 seeks major savings by repealing ObamaCare and endorsed a Senate GOP bill as the best way to do so. “The Budget supports a two-part approach to repealing and replacing Obamacare, starting with enactment of legislation modeled closely after the Graham-Cassidy-Heller-Johnson (GCHJ) bill as soon as possible,” the White House said in its budget request. (Weixel, 2/12)
The Hill:
Trump Releases Budget Proposal For Health Department
The Department of Health and Human Services would receive $95.4 billion under the budget proposal released by the Trump administration Monday. Under the proposal, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would face a cut but the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration would see increases. (Hellmann, 2/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
White House Eyes Role Of Middlemen In Drug Price Fight
On the surface, the plans to lower drug prices in the Trump Administration’s 2019 budget shouldn’t cause much pain to the health-care industry. A closer look shows where policymakers are hoping to get deeper cost savings. In the 2019 budget released Monday, the White House unveiled a series of plans to lower drug prices, including making certain generic drugs free and capping out of pocket spending for Medicare beneficiaries. (Grant, 2/12)
Los Angeles Times:
White House Releases Budget, Forecasts A Decade Of Mounting Debt
His budget would slash almost $700 billion in federal healthcare spending that helps low- and moderate-income Americans who rely on insurance marketplaces created by the 2010 healthcare law. As Republicans proposed last year, the plan would replace much existing healthcare spending with grants to states, allowing each one to craft its own health program. Similar proposals last year failed in the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has indicated that the chamber won't consider another run at Obamacare this year. (Parsons, 2/12)
The New York Times:
What’s In The White House Budget Request?
The president’s budget singles out abortion providers and would prohibit Health and Human Services funding, including money used for family planning, from going to any clinic or health care facility that also offers abortion services. Though the language is broadly written, its intended target is Planned Parenthood, which relies on government funding to offer a variety of services to women other than abortion. The budget would help achieve the longstanding goal of social conservatives to cut off Planned Parenthood from federal assistance. (2/12)