U.S. representatives voted 221-207 in favor of a 2014 budget resolution bill that cuts spending more than $4.6 trillion over a decade, more than half of which comes from repealing health law funding and other healthcare budget items. The Senate is expected to vote on its own budget resolution later this week.
At the same time, a bipartisan bill preventing a federal government shutdown until the end of September passed the House of Representatives in a 318-109 vote and will go before President Barack Obama to sign next week. The $85 million in sequestration cuts, including to Medicare, would still be active.
The House budget resolution, if made law, would achieve $2.7 trillion in savings through reducing healthcare funding through medical tort reforms, boosting means testing for Medicare's outpatient and prescription drug coverage under Parts B and D and axing the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which would be tasked with making binding recommendations to cut Medicare spending to meet reduced growth levels.
The resolution also sets up a funding reserve to replace the sustainable growth rate cuts to physician Medicare reimbursements, and in 2024, Medicare would begin to offer workers under 55 an option to receive a voucher to subsidize private plan premiums or stay on traditional fee-for-service Medicare through a new Medicare exchange. Medicaid would become a block grant to states and save the program $756 billion over the next decade.
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At the same time, a bipartisan bill preventing a federal government shutdown until the end of September passed the House of Representatives in a 318-109 vote and will go before President Barack Obama to sign next week. The $85 million in sequestration cuts, including to Medicare, would still be active.
The House budget resolution, if made law, would achieve $2.7 trillion in savings through reducing healthcare funding through medical tort reforms, boosting means testing for Medicare's outpatient and prescription drug coverage under Parts B and D and axing the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which would be tasked with making binding recommendations to cut Medicare spending to meet reduced growth levels.
The resolution also sets up a funding reserve to replace the sustainable growth rate cuts to physician Medicare reimbursements, and in 2024, Medicare would begin to offer workers under 55 an option to receive a voucher to subsidize private plan premiums or stay on traditional fee-for-service Medicare through a new Medicare exchange. Medicaid would become a block grant to states and save the program $756 billion over the next decade.
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