Summary
Today, the House will vote on the rules package, a set of guidelines that will determine how the Republican-controlled House will operate. In order to secure the Speakership, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made a number of concessions to conservatives. The deal included a provision to freeze spending at FY 2022 levels.
The House will also vote on slate of messaging bills. It includes two bills that would limit access to abortion: (1) A measure to codify the Hyde Amendment prohibiting federal funding for abortion; and (2) the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which is framed as a measure to require a fetus that survives an abortion to receive emergency medical care. However, such emergency medical care is required by a 2002 law, and the new measure would “add criminal penalties against doctors and clinicians as a scare tactic to discourage women from seeking safe, legal abortion,” explains the Guttmacher Institute.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has started the new year with a flurry of policy updates (and more on the way, per the updated unified agenda). Below, we recap recent guidance on Medicaid coverage and mental health. Additionally, we highlight the agenda for Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s (MedPAC) meeting later this week.