Trump’s Proposed Budget Would Cut About A Trillion Dollars From Medicaid Programs, ACA Subsidies
While President Donald Trump's budget doesn't offer specifics on his "health care vision," an $844 billion mystery pot -- along with other Medicaid changes -- signal deep cuts to health programs. Critics were quick to challenge Trump's promises to protect people's coverage despite any funding cuts. “You can’t cut $1 trillion from these programs and protect the most vulnerable,” said Aviva Aron-Dine of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The budget also includes a big funding drop for CDC, a proposal to strip the FDA of its authority over tobacco products, a provision to slash funding for the agency currently working to create a coronavirus vaccine, and more.
The New York Times:
Trump’s $4.8 Trillion Budget Would Cut Safety Net Programs And Boost Defense
President Trump released a $4.8 trillion budget proposal on Monday that includes a familiar list of deep cuts to student loan assistance, affordable housing efforts, food stamps and Medicaid, reflecting Mr. Trump’s election-year effort to continue shrinking the federal safety net. (Tankersley, Sanger-Katz, Rappeport and Cochrane, 2/10)
The New York Times:
In Trump’s Budget, Big Health Care Cuts But Few Details
Mr. Trump is running for re-election this year, so his budget can be read as a policy blueprint for his second term if he wins. The budget leaves to the imagination just what that vision is. Unlike in previous years, when the health care budget laid out specific plans to repeal large sections of the Affordable Care Act and replace it, this year’s proposal barely mentions President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. But the deep cuts enshrined in the budget’s numbers are not consistent with modest tweaks. Taken together with Medicaid changes recommended elsewhere in the budget, the proposal would strip about $1 trillion out of Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies, the two pillars of the law’s expansion of insurance coverage. By 2029, the cuts to those programs in Mr. Trump’s budget would represent around 85 percent of the total that the Congressional Budget Office estimates would otherwise be spent on Obamacare coverage that year. (Sanger-Katz, 2/10)
The Associated Press:
Mystery $844B Pot In Trump Budget Signals Medicaid Cuts
The budget does telegraph that the administration is taking aim at Medicaid. The $600 billion federal-state program covers more than 70 million low-income people, ranging from newborns to elderly nursing home residents. A passage in a dense tome called “Analytical Perspectives” accompanying the budget calls for “ending the financial bias that currently favors able-bodied working-age adults over the truly vulnerable” in Medicaid. Translation: Repeal “Obamacare's" generous federal matching for states that expand their programs to cover low-income adults. A senior administration official briefing reporters on the budget said it would allow states that want more flexibility in Medicaid to accept their federal share as a lump sum. For states staying with traditional Medicaid, the program would grow by 3% on average instead of 5%. Such limits, rejected by Congress in the past, lead to program cuts that compound over time. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/10)
The Washington Post:
Trump Budget Cuts Funding For Health, Science, Environment Agencies
The budget request would trim funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by almost 16 percent. HHS officials said they want the CDC to focus on its core mission of preventing and controlling infectious diseases and on other emerging public health issues, such as opioid abuse. Officials propose to take the money that would normally go to fund individual disease prevention activities and funnel it into a single block grant to states. The budget says chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes have common risk factors, and thus consolidating funds “can help magnify the public health impact.” Although the budget reduces overall funding for global health, from $571 million to $532 million in 2021, officials carved out an extra $50 million for global health security, which are measures aimed at disease detection and emergencies. That bump comes at the expense of international HIV/AIDS programs, which is being cut by about $58 million. (Achenbach, McGinley, Goldstein and Guarino, 2/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Proposes $4.8 Trillion Budget, With Cuts To Safety Nets
Mr. Trump’s plan also calls for a 6.5% funding cut for the National Institutes of Health, the primary driver of U.S. medical research. That includes a $430 million cut to the budget of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is seeking to produce a vaccine that could stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus and has a parallel program to test therapeutic products that could fight the outbreak. Separately, the administration has notified Capitol Hill that it might reprogram $136 million in funds from fiscal year 2020 to address the virus, the administration official said, though no decision has been made on whether the money is needed. (Davidson and Restuccia, 2/10)
Modern Healthcare:
Trump Budget Punts On Healthcare Reform, Drug Pricing Policy
Trump also diverged from previous budgets by leaving drug-pricing reform up to Congress with an "allowance" of $135 billion for bipartisan policy to lower drug costs. The HHS budget generally says the administration supports an out-of-pocket cap for beneficiaries' pharmacy drug costs, policies to promote generic and biosimilar competition, increasing drugmakers' share of Medicaid rebates and authorizing innovative Medicaid drug payment models. (Cohrs, 2/10)
Stat:
Trump Doesn't Want The FDA To Regulate Tobacco
The Trump administration is proposing to strip the Food and Drug Administration of all authority to regulate tobacco products, according to budget documents released Monday. Under the budget proposal, a new agency would be created within the Department of Health and Human Services dedicated solely to regulating tobacco, including e-cigarettes. It’s a striking proposal that directly bucks the will of both Congress and the FDA. (Florko, 2/10)
The Hill:
Trump Administration Proposes Removing FDA's Authority Over Tobacco Regulation
"In addition, this reorganization would allow the FDA Commissioner to focus on its traditional mission of ensuring the safety of the Nation’s food and medical products supply," it continues. The FDA regulates tobacco products, including cigarettes and e-cigarettes, as well as prescription and over-the-counter drugs, food, dietary supplements, vaccines, medical devices and more. (Hellmann, 2/10)
CNN:
Trump Budget Plan Could Push Tobacco Oversight Out Of The FDA
"This is an effort plain and clear to install the tobacco industry as the wolf in the hen house," said Erika Sward, assistant vice president of national advocacy for the American Lung Association. "There's no need to do this," said Eric N. Lindblom, senior scholar at the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law. (Nedelman and Christensen, 2/10)
Boston Globe:
Trump Budget Proposes Ending State Medical Marijuana Protections
President Trump proposed ending an existing policy that protects state medical marijuana programs from Justice Department interference as part of his fiscal year 2021 budget plan released Monday. The rider, which has been renewed in appropriations legislation every year since 2014, stipulates the the Justice Department can’t use its funds to prevent states or territories “from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.” (Jaeger, 2/10)
Politico:
The Quirky, The Odd And The Baffling In The Trump Budget Shuffle
Trump is adopting President Barack Obama’s approach to the politically tricky question of where to put the nuclear waste accumulating at power plants around the country. After promising in his previous three budgets to open the stalled Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada, Trump is now essentially conceding defeat in the face of widespread opposition in a state he hopes to win in November. His budget promises to “not stand idly by given the stalemate on Yucca Mountain” and to work with states to find a new location. (McCrimmon, 2/10)
Reuters:
Trump's $4.8 Trillion Budget Gets Chilly Reception From Congress
Democrats said Trump's proposal upended his promise in last week's State of the Union speech to "always protect" the popular Social Security pension plan and the Medicare health plan for seniors. “Americans’ quality, affordable health care will never be safe with President Trump," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "Everyone knows the latest Trump budget is dead on arrival in Congress," said Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee. (2/10)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Budget Math Grapples With Economic Reality
President Trump’s budget proposals have been defined by a belief that the economy will grow significantly faster than most economists anticipate. The latest version, released on Monday, is a brief departure: It concedes, for the first time, that the administration’s past projections were too optimistic. Then it goes right back to forecasting 3 percent growth, for the better part of a decade. (Tankersley, 2/10)
