Healthcare coverage for millions in U.S. will turn on a debate emerging in Washington
President Biden used his State of the Union speech to bait Republicans into a fight over Medicare. Biden’s plan will “ask the wealthiest to pay a little more to ensure that this program is around for at least 25 more years for our seniors who need it,” White House budget director Shalanda Young told reporters in unveiling the spending plan Thursday morning. “Trump really scrambled the equation for a lot of Republicans” by opposing any cuts to Medicare or Social Security, said Dean Rosen, a Republican healthcare policy expert and former top Senate healthcare aide. “That’s more difficult to sell politically.” One Republican proposal would save billions of dollars by eliminating the part of the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s healthcare reform law, that allowed states to expand Medicaid to cover the working poor, with Washington picking up 90% of the cost. As “the symbolism of Obamacare has faded,” it’s become much harder for Republicans to reject Medicaid expansion under the healthcare law, said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for healthcare policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, which has tracked the expansion debate.
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