Last week, President Barack Obama unveiled his fiscal year 2015 budget, including $414 billion in proposed Medicare and Medicaid cuts during the next decade.
Kaiser Family Foundation analysts took a look at the Medicare provisions included in the budget. Here are four key observations they included in their report on how the president's fiscal blueprint (which is unlikely to actually be enacted) would affect the program.
1. Medicare spending cuts amounting to more than $400 billion account for 25 percent of all reductions in federal spending in the budget.
2. More than one-third (34 percent) of the proposed reductions come from reduced spending on prescription drugs under Medicare Part B and Part D. The largest source of Medicare savings would be a provision requiring drug manufacturers to provide Medicaid-level rebates on prescriptions for Part D low-income subsidy enrollees.
3. Thirty-three percent of the Medicare spending reductions come from pay cuts for providers, mostly those who administer post-acute care.
4. Roughly 16 percent of the Medicare savings included in the budget would result from higher premiums, deductibles and cost-sharing for beneficiaries.
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