The budget resolution was passed by a party-line vote of 220-212 in the Democratic-controlled House. The budget plan includes spending goals that must now be detailed in legislation by the committees. Democratic leaders have stated that they hope to pass the budget next month. On August 24, the House of Representatives passed a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint that could result in severe changes to Medicare and Medicaid.
- The Bill: The vote by the House also set a Sept. 27 deadline to vote on the Senate-passed $1 trillion infrastructure bill. One of the funding sources for the bill will be continuing and extending an automatic 2 percent annual Medicare payment cut. The 2 percent payment cuts currently is slated to run from the fiscal year 2022 to 2030. The bill would restart the payment cuts next year and extend them so they run until fiscal 2031.
- New vision: Democrats said the package would include a new dental, vision, and hearing benefit to the Medicare program and create a federal program to provide healthcare coverage in the states that have not expanded Medicaid under the ACA.
- Back better plan: “Passing this rule paves the way for the Building Back Better plan, which will forge legislative progress unseen in 50 years, that will stand for generations alongside the New Deal and the Great Society,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the House floor ahead of the vote.
- Delay: The vote in the House was initially set to take place Monday evening, but was delayed after Pelosi and a group of moderate Democrats were at a stalemate over when the chamber would take up the bipartisan infrastructure plan passed by the Senate this month.
- Leverage: “Any delay in passing the rule threatens the Build Back Better plan, as well as voting rights reform, as well as the bipartisan infrastructure bill. We cannot surrender our leverage”, said Pelosi.
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