The Los Angeles Post

Senate budget deal to provide new funding for Medicare, Medicaid, ObamaCare

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The $3.5 trillion budget deal reached by Senate Democrats will include funding for a range of major health care priorities, from expanding Medicare and Medicaid to extending enhanced ObamaCare subsidies.

The proposal will also be paid for in part by lowering prescription drug prices, according to a senior Democratic aide.

Long road ahead: While the budget sets the general parameters, the details of the proposals remain to be worked out by lawmakers ahead of a final package, which will use the legislative process known as reconciliation to sidestep a GOP filibuster. The contents could also change as the legislation is crafted.

Major provisions:

  • Provide funding to add dental, hearing and vision coverage to Medicare, a major expansion pushed by progressives like Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the aide said.
  • Fund a program to expand Medicaid in the 12 holdout states that have so far declined to accept ObamaCare’s expansion of Medicaid, though the details of how this federal workaround will work are unclear.
  • Provide funding to help provide care for seniors at home, known as “home and community-based services,” and will extend enhanced ObamaCare subsidies that help lower enrollees’ premiums, which were funded for two years in the American Rescue Plan earlier this year.
  • Paid for in part by lowering drug prices, but the details need to be worked out.