President Biden Unveils FY 24 Budget Request, Proposes to Extend Medicare Solvency by at Least 25 Years
On Thursday, President Joe Biden released his $6.8 trillion fiscal year 2024 (FY 24)
budget request. The request makes investments to out-compete China globally and to continue to support Ukraine amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. Biden’s plan would cut $3 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade, in part by levying a 25% tax on Americans whose wealth exceeds $100 million. In the health space, the budget seeks to extend Medicare solvency, expand access to health care, make investments in public health preparedness and behavioral health care, and improve the health care workforce.
The budget includes $7.1 billion for health centers, $20 billion in mandatory funding across the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prepare for future pandemics, $995 million for the Strategic National Stockpile, $836 million for the 9-8-8 and Behavioral Health Services program, $2.5 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), and $2.7 billion for Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) workforce programs.
The Biden Administration asserts that the President’s budget proposal would extend the solvency of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund by 25 years or more, according to estimates from the Medicare Office of the Chief Actuary. To achieve this, the Administration proposes to increase the Medicare tax rate on income above $400,000 and add a larger number of drugs to those for which the government can negotiate prices. Additionally, the proposal seeks to bring drugs “into negotiation sooner after they launch.” The budget also proposes to cap Part D cost-sharing on certain generic drugs to $2 per month. Further, it seeks to eliminate cost-sharing under the Medicare program for three mental health or other behavioral health visits per year and requires mental health parity in the program. The White House’s fact sheet on the budget’s Medicare proposals can be found
here, HHS’s press release can be found
here, and the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB’s) fact sheet can be found
here.
HHS Reopens its Health Sector Climate Pledge
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) announced that the
White House-HHS Health Sector Climate Pledge will reopen following the original October 2022 deadline to sign up. HHS reported that “multiple health sector stakeholders requested to join the initiative” after the deadline. The Pledge is a voluntary commitment to “reduce emissions and improve climate resilience.” Health organizations who sign the Pledge agree to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. According to HHS, the health care sector accounts for 8.5% of U.S. emissions. Additional information can be found
here.
Former CDC Director Testifies on the Origins of COVID-19
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic held a hearing titled, “Investigating the Origins of COVID-19.” At the hearing, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield testified that his former colleagues Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins shut him out of COVID-19 origin discussions because he believed that the virus was leaked from a Wuhan laboratory. Dr. Redfield recommended that the U.S. place a moratorium on gain-of-function research and said that he is of the view that “we do not need to make pathogens more transmissible or more pathogenic in order to get ahead of the curve.”
