Fact Sheet: As House Republicans Release Budget to Increase Health Care Costs and Take Away Coverage, President Biden and Vice President Harris Fight to Lower Health Care Costs and Protect and Strengthen the ACA, Medicaid, and Medicare

During a visit to North Carolina, the President and Vice President will lay out their plan to make health care more affordable

For years, Republican elected officials—including the previous Administration—have tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which gives millions of Americans access to quality, affordable health coverage. Just last week, House Republicans released another extreme budget that would rip coverage away from millions of Americans while doing Big Pharma’s bidding to drive up prescription drug costs.

The budget from the Republican Study Committee—which represents 100% of House Republican leadership and 80% of House Republicans—would:

• Slash $4.5 trillion from the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. These devastating cuts would take health care away from millions of Americans.

• Ripping away coverage for more than 45 million people enrolled in ACA coverage and Medicaid expansion. The Republican budget completely strips funding from the Affordable Care Act’s Marketplace and Medicaid expansion—programs that cover 45 million people.

• Turning Medicaid into block grants that would threaten coverage and care for an additional over 60 million Americans with Medicaid.  States would be forced to make it harder to qualify and enroll in coverage, cut critical benefits, or both, threatening coverage for millions of children and families.

• Threatening care for seniors and people with disabilities. Over seven million seniors and people with disabilities relying on Medicaid home care services could see it cut or taken away altogether, with ballooning wait lists for those who still need care. Hundreds of thousands of nursing home residents would be at risk of lower quality care if Medicaid had to cut nursing home payments.

• Eliminate critical consumer protections. Millions of consumers are protected from insurance company abuses by the ACA, but the Republican budget sides with insurance companies to roll back these critical protections.

• Over 100 million people with pre-existing conditions could be denied or charged more for coverage.

• Older adults could face higher premiums. Health insurance premiums would skyrocket, especially for people in their 50s and 60s.

• Insurance companies would be allowed to rip off Americans with junk insurance products. The Republican budget promotes the sale of junk insurance products, which can scam consumers and leave on them on the hook for tens of thousands of dollars in expenses.

• Slash Medicare by turning it into a “premium support” program. In contrast with the President’s plan to protect and strengthen Medicare by lowering drug prices and making the wealthy pay their fair share, the House Republican budget would convert Medicare to a “premium support” program that would raise premiums for millions of seniors.

• Raise prescription drug prices for seniors and give massive handouts to Big Pharma. The Republican Budget would side with Big Pharma to increase drug prices and seniors’ out-of-pocket costs by repealing the Inflation Reduction Act.

• Medicare would no longer be able to negotiate lower drug prices. Big Pharma would once again be allowed to set whatever price they want, leaving seniors and taxpayers on the hook and facing higher prices.

• Big Pharma would no longer pay Medicare back when they increase drug prices faster than inflation, allowing them to jack up prices with no accountability.

• Seniors would go back to paying up to $400 for insulin, instead of the $35 price cap per monthly insulin prescription they have today.

• Seniors would face higher costs if the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap on drug costs is eliminated.

If Republican elected officials get their way, these proposals would become the law of the land and Americans would pay the price.

President Biden and Vice President Harris have a different vision, which they will lay out in North Carolina today. They believe that health care is a right, not a privilege, and that we must protect and strengthen the Affordable Care Act to continue lowering health care and prescription drug costs and expanding coverage to more Americans.

Under the President and Vice President’s leadership, more Americans have health insurance than ever before, with a record-breaking 21 million Americans signing up for ACA coverage this year—9 million more than when they took office. The President and Vice President have fought to protect and strengthen the ACA and Medicaid with critical health care protections, like free preventative care and guaranteed coverage regardless of health status or gender.

President Biden and Vice President Harris have also made health care under the ACA more affordable than ever, saving millions of Americans an average of $800 per year on health insurance premiums. And after decades of failed attempts, and without a single Republican vote in Congress, President Biden beat Big Pharma by passing the Inflation Reduction Act—which for the first time in history is giving Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug costs, capping insulin at $35 per a month per prescription for seniors and people with disabilities, and capping out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare enrollees at $2,000 a year starting in 2025.

The President and Vice President are not done lowering health care costs and improving health care for the American people. They want to build on the progress they have made to further lower prescription drug costs and health insurance premiums; expand access to care, especially mental health care; and protect Americans from getting ripped off by corporations. While Republicans officials try to rip Americans’ health care away, President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting to:

• Lower Health Insurance Premiums Permanently. Make permanent the expanded premium tax credits that were last extended by the Inflation Reduction Act so millions of Americans do not see their net health insurance premiums spike by hundreds or thousands of dollars starting in 2026.

• Close the Coverage Gap. Provide Medicaid-like coverage to people in the 10 states that have not adopted Medicaid expansion.

• Keep Kids Covered. Provide States the option to avoid children losing coverage due to red tape from birth through age 6, and cut red tape for families on Medicaid.

• Make Home Care More Available. Invest billions more in home care so the hundreds of thousands of older adults and individuals with disabilities on Medicaid home care waiting lists get the care they need in their homes.

• Ensure Access to Mental Health Care. Increase access to mental health care by expanding coverage in Medicare and private insurance, applying the mental health parity requirements to Medicare beneficiaries, and extending Medicare incentive programs to address mental health provider shortages.

• Prevent More Surprise Medical Bills. Protect consumers by applying surprise billing protections to ground ambulance providers so people do not have to worry about an unexpected bill for their ambulance ride.

• Crack Down on Junk Facility Fees. Eliminate unwarranted “facility” fees on telemedicine and other outpatient health care services for consumers.

• Let Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices for at least 50 Drugs Every Year. Expand the number of drugs Medicare can negotiate from 20 to at least 50 per year, cutting prices for major drugs that seniors rely on, like those used to treat heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Alongside other reforms, this will reduce the deficit by an additional $200 billion over the next ten years.

• Cap Out-of-Pocket Prescription Drug Costs for Everyone. Expand the $2,000 out-of-pocket prescription drug cap to people with private insurance so that all Americans have the peace of mind that comes with not being forced to choose between filling their prescription or putting food on the table.

• Cap Medicare Cost-Sharing at $2 for Common Generic Drugs. Establish a new permanent Medicare benefit limiting monthly Medicare Part D cost-sharing for certain high-value generic drugs to $2, such as for those used to treat hypertension and high cholesterol.

• Protect and Strengthen Medicare for Generations. The President will block Republican efforts to dismantle Medicare and instead will extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund for generations by making the wealthy pay their fair share toward Medicare and dedicating savings from Medicare prescription drug reforms to the Hospital Insurance trust fund.

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