Budget Battles
-
A Make-or-Break Week for Biden’s Agenda
President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders have three days and counting to unite their party and ensure that their economic agenda doesn’t collapse into chaos. Pelosi sets a deadline: Speaker Nancy...
-
Democrats Set Up a Shutdown and Debt Limit Showdown With GOP
Congress is back, and it’s going to be busy. House lawmakers returned today, meaning that both chambers of Congress are in session for the first time since July. They have a thicket of interconnected...
-
CDC to Spend $2.1 Billion on Effort to Cut Hospital Infections
The Biden administration on Friday announced a plan to spend $2.1 billion to improve infection prevention and control across the U.S. health care system, the largest such investment in the country’s...
-
House Ways and Means Committee Approves Medicare Expansion
The House Ways and Means Committee voted on Friday to advance a measure expanding Medicare coverage to include vision, hearing and dental care. Under the plan, vision benefits would begin in 2022 and...
-
Biden Defiant as Republicans Blast New Vaccine Rules
By Michael RaineySome Republican leaders are making it crystal clear that they do not support the vaccine requirements affecting thousands of businesses and millions of workers announced by President Joe Biden on...
-
Biden Administration Backs Medicare Negotiations in Plan to Lower Drug Prices
The Biden administration on Thursday called for allowing Medicare to negotiate prices directly with drugmakers as part of a new plan to lower prescription drug prices. The 29-page plan , issued by...
-
Biden Outlines New Plan to Combat Covid-19
By Michael RaineyFaced with a late-summer surge in Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, President Joe Biden announced on Thursday a new plan to combat the virus. Among other initiatives, the six-point...
-
Democrats Plot Biggest Health Care Expansion Since Obamacare
As Democrats get down to negotiating and writing their budget reconciliation bill, The Washington Post’s Rachel Roubein notes that the legislation is poised to be the biggest health expansion since...
-
Biden Calls for Mandates as FDA Approves Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine
By Michael RaineyThe Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave full approval to the Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, which until now had been used under emergency authorization. The vaccine has...
-
Biden Presses Congress to Lower 'Outrageously' High Drug Prices
President Biden on Thursday called on Congress to lower prescription drug prices by enacting a number of reforms, including allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies. “There aren’t...
-
CDC Director Warns of 'Pandemic of the Unvaccinated'
By Michael RaineyWith the delta variant of the Covid-19 virus driving an uptick in new cases in some parts of the U.S., health officials are warning about the dangers of delaying or avoiding vaccination. “This is...
-
Democrats Eye Major Expansion of Medicare Coverage
By Michael RaineyThe $3.5 trillion budget blueprint agreed to by Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee reportedly includes vision, dental and hearing coverage through Medicare – a major change for the program that...
-
Health Costs of Gun Violence Top $1 Billion a Year: GAO
The cost of initial hospital treatment of gun-related injuries tops $1 billion a year, with Medicaid and other public health coverage accounting for more than 60% of the total, according to a report...
-
Obamacare and Medicaid Enrollment Reach Record Highs
More than 2 million Americans have signed up for health coverage via the Obamacare marketplaces during a special enrollment period that started in February, the Biden administration said Wednesday...
-
The Growing Vaccination Divide Between Trump and Biden Counties
The stark partisan divide on Covid-19 vaccinations has resulted in a growing gap in vaccination rates between counties that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and those that supported Donald Trump. A new...