Democrats Float Drug-Pricing Changes To Help Pay For Massive Budget Bill

AP: Biden Pitches Huge Budget, Says Dems Will 'Get A Lot Done'
President Joe Biden made a quick foray to the Capitol on Wednesday hunting support for his multitrillion-dollar agenda of infrastructure, health care and other programs, a potential landmark achievement that would require near-unanimous backing from fractious Democrats. His visit came a day after Senate Democratic leaders capped weeks of bargaining by agreeing to spend a mammoth $3.5 trillion over the coming decade on initiatives focusing on climate change, education, a Medicare expansion and more. That’s on top of a separate $1 trillion bipartisan compromise on roads, water systems and other infrastructure projects that senators from both parties are negotiating, with Biden’s support. (Fram and Mascaro, 7/14)

Stat: Senate Democrats Eye Drug Pricing Policies To Fund $3.5 Trillion Budget Deal
Senate Democrats intend to include several drug pricing policies in their $3.5 trillion partisan push to pass a slew of major Biden administration priorities, according to a framework of the draft package obtained by STAT. The draft suggests that certain drug pricing provisions could be used to help offset the costs of other, pricier parts of the sweeping proposal, which will include initiatives on clean energy, early childhood tax credits, and expanding safety net programs. (Cohrs, 7/14)

Axios: The Infrastructure Drug Deal
Senate Democrats have a new pay-for to finance a "soft" infrastructure bill: renegotiating Medicare prescription drug prices to save $600 billion — setting up a battle between progressives and well-capitalized drug companies. By targeting pharma, Democrats are opening up a funding stream President Biden didn't initially include in his $4 trillion Build Back Better agenda. It relied on hiking taxes on corporations and Americans earning over $400,000. (Nichols, 7/14)

Politico: Vulnerable House Democrats Call For Sweeping Drug Pricing Reforms In Spending Plan 
More than a dozen of the House’s most vulnerable Democrats are urging their leadership to include a major set of drug pricing reforms in their party’s upcoming multitrillion-dollar spending plan, a move that could help pay for the proposal. In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the 15 battleground-district House Democrats said the spending package should include a sweeping measure that would empower Medicare to negotiate drug prices and ultimately help slash costs across the health system. The same measure could also offset hundreds of billions of dollars of the $3.5 trillion total price tag. (Ferris, 7/14)

CNBC: Democrats' $3.5 Trillion Budget Funds Family Programs, Clean Energy, Medicare Expansion
Senate Democrats released the framework Wednesday for their $3.5 trillion budget resolution bill, which they hope to pass later this summer on a party-line vote. The bill will contain nearly all of President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan bill, plus the addition of expanded Medicare coverage for hearing, vision and dental care. (Wilkie, 7/14)

CNBC: Medicare Would Cover Dental, Vision Hearing Under Democrats' Budget
Medicare — the health insurance program relied on by most older Americans — would cover dental, vision and hearing under a budget agreement announced late Tuesday by Senate Democrats. The proposal for expanded coverage was included as part of a plan to spend $3.5 trillion over the next decade on climate change, health care and family-service programs, all part of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. Although there’s no certainty that everything in the budget blueprint will make it through the full congressional process, Medicare advocates are hopeful that coverage of the extra benefits will come to fruition. (O'Brien, 7/14)

Politico: Climate, Immigration, Medicare Lead Progressive Highlights In Dems' $3.5T Budget Plan 
Senate Democrats' $3.5 trillion spending package will unleash a gusher of hundreds of billions of dollars for progressive priorities, from climate programs to an expansion of Medicare to promised green cards for some undocumented immigrants, according to new details released on Wednesday. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Budget Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a moderate on the budget panel, briefed the rest of the Democratic caucus during lunch with President Joe Biden in the Capitol on Wednesday. They discussed some of the biggest components of the planned spending bill that Democrats aim to pass without Republican support using the budget process. That filibuster-proof process starts with a budget resolution, which Senate Democrats have agreed to set at a ceiling of $3.5 trillion. (Emma, Ferris and Adragna, 7/14)

Axios: Most Seniors Don't Have Dental Coverage, And Half Skip Dentist Visits 
Two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries don't have dental coverage, and half haven't been to the dentist in the past year. Democrats are pushing to have the program cover dental, hearing and vision benefits the same way it does other medical care. Lower-income beneficiaries, those in poor or fair health, and beneficiaries of color are most likely to report going without a dental visit over the last year, per KFF. (Owens, 7/15)

KHN: Senate Democrats’ Plan Boosts Spending On Medicare, ACA Subsidies, Long-Term Care 
The budget package Democrats are assembling in Congress would likely provide the biggest jolt to the American health care system since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, according to sources familiar with work on the plan. Democrats in the Senate announced Tuesday night that they had reached a framework for a $3.5 trillion budget plan that would cover health care, education, climate and tax changes sought by lawmakers and President Joe Biden. (McAuliff, 7/15)

In other news about Biden's infrastructure plan —

KHN: Can Biden’s Plan To Remove Urban Highways Improve The Health Of American Cities? 
Mandela Parkway, a four-lane boulevard enhanced by a median with trees and a curving footpath, stretches along a 24-block section of West Oakland. It’s the fruit of a grassroots neighborhood campaign to block reconstruction of an elevated freeway leveled by the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and reimagine the thoroughfare to replace it. Since the parkway’s 2005 completion, 168 units of affordable housing have sprung up along its route. The air is measurably freer of pollutants than it was when the Cypress Freeway ran through the area. (DiGiulio, 7/15)