A $6.8 trillion budget proposal released March 9 by the Biden Administration aims to reduce future budget deficits while increasing spending on the military and a broad array of social programs. In the health care space, the proposal would save over $200 billion on drug spending by expanding the scope of drug negotiation provisions and negotiating Medicaid supplemental drug rebates, while increasing Medicare taxes on high earners from 3.8% to 5%.

Additional funds for pandemic preparedness, community health centers, broadband to support telehealth, maternal mortality prevention, rural health, cancer moonshot research and other programs are also proposed.

The budget is useful to understand the administration's priorities, but will not become law as released. The proposal sets high stakes for a larger debate to come this summer over fiscal issues and the debt limit.

ACC Advocacy staff and policy makers will further analyze the budget in coming weeks to identify notable proposals for future advocacy efforts.

Clinical Topics: Cardiovascular Care Team

Keywords: ACC Advocacy, United States, Medicaid, Medicare, Negotiating, Pandemics, Military Personnel, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Financial Management, Health Policy, Administrative Personnel, Taxes, Telemedicine

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