Summary
Congress is in recess this week. Advancing the budget reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement and border patrol by June 1 (President Trump’s deadline) will be Republicans’ top priority when they return next week.
Time in their districts and states will be an opportunity for both parties to highlight their key messages ahead of the midterms. The House GOP’s platform centers on four main policy areas: border security; energy independence; eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse; and tax relief for working families.
Meanwhile, Democrats continue to focus on affordability, with health care a central part of their message, as well as Medicaid cuts in H.R. 1.
- Senate Democrats’ vision for health care seeks to lower costs and make care accessible and easier to use.
- Senate Finance Democrats’ is developing policies to lower health care costs and prescription drug costs.
- Health Coverage: “Reverse Republican cost increases and reimagine a better path…make health care simpler for families…take on corporate greed.”
- Prescription Drug: “Lowering the prices manufacturers charge for drugs…reducing out-of-pocket drug costs…restoring and bolstering American innovation.”
- Congressional Progressive Caucus’ New Affordability Agenda includes a proposal to make prescription drugs cheaper “by establishing a government program to sell generic drugs at a discount, cutting the price of a vial of insulin from $300 to $50.”
- New Democrat Coalition’s New Dem Affordability Agenda proposes to “extend ACA tax credits…cap prescription drug costs, fully fund Medicaid and protect patients from surprise medical bills and aggressive debt collection.”
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who is facing a tough primary later this month, will convene two field hearings.
The first hearing is focused on health care affordability and will feature perspectives from Louisiana-based employers, patients, and providers. This will be an opportunity for Chairman Cassidy, to highlight his Money and Value for Patients (MVP) agenda. It entails providing $1,000 or $1,500 (depending on age) through a health savings account tied to a bronze or catastrophic plan, empowering patients to shop for lower cost care through TrumpRx and with the help of price transparency, and expanding access to safe and nutritious food.
The second hearing is focused on mental health and substance use treatment. The panel features Louisiana-based health care advocates and executives, as well as the former acting head of SAMHSA.
Regulatory Update
The Office of Management and Budget completed reviewing:
- Head Start. Proposed Rule: Restoring Flexibility to Support Head Start Program Access
- Nutrition. Interim Final Rule: Expanding Fluid Milk Options in Child Nutrition Programs
OMB is reviewing the following rules:
- Coverage and Payment:
- Medicaid:
- State Directed Payments. Proposed Rule: Medicaid Managed Care State Directed Payments and Medicaid Fee-For-Service Targeted Medicaid Practitioner Payments
- Medicaid Tax Waivers. Proposed Rule: Amending the Indirect Hold Harmless Threshold of Health Care-Related Taxes
- Work Requirements. Interim Final Rule: Establishing State Community Engagement Requirements for Certain Individuals Under Section 1902(xx) of the Social Security Act
- Proposed Rules: CY 2027 policy changes and payment rates for hospital outpatient departments, physicians, and ESRD facilities
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- Final Rule: 2027 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters
- Proposed Rule: Exchange Pre-Enrollment Eligibility Verification
- No Surprises Act. Final Rule: Independent Dispute Resolution Operations
- Organ Transplant. Final Rule: Alternative Payment Model Updates and the Increasing Organ Transplant Access
- Drug Price Negotiation. Proposed Rule: Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program
- Accrediting Organizations. Final Rule: Strengthening Oversight of Accrediting Organizations (AO), Burden Reduction, and Related Provisions
- Nutrition
- Work Requirements. Proposed Rule: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Modification to Work Requirements for Able-Bodied Adults
- Categorical Eligibility. Proposed Rule: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Reforming Categorical Eligibility
- Cost Sharing. Proposed Rule: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Changes in Federal-State Administrative Cost Sharing
- Interim Final Rule: Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule; Update to Include Proof of Identity and Income Verification Standards
- Medication-Assisted Treatment. Final Rule: Implementation of the SUPPORT Act: Dispensing and Administering Controlled Substances for Medication-Assisted Treatment
- Final Rule: HIPAA Privacy Rule: Changes to Support Coordinated Care and Individual Engagement and Reduce Regulatory Burdens
- Excepted Benefits. Proposed Rule: Amendments to Excepted Benefits
- Interim Final Rule: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability by Recipients of Department of Health and Human Services Financial Assistance
- Final Rule: Rescinding Portions of Department of Health and Human Services Title VI Regulations to Conform More Closely with the Statutory Text and to Implement Executive Order 14281