WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 7: President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a … [+]
President Biden’s 2025 budget proposalwhich is able to double as a platform for his presidential campaign, accommodates key proposals he’s targeting Supporting older adults. It would raise taxes to fund Medicare, increase federal support for Medicaid home care, create a federal family leave program for many who look after older adults and kids, and impose stricter regulations and inspections of nursing homes. It guarantees to enhance Social Security’s ability to pay, but doesn’t say how.
A deeply divided Congress won’t adopt any of Biden’s far-reaching initiatives in the rest of the election 12 months. However, as a part of a broader package of latest social programs, they’re expected to be included in Biden’s administration agenda starting next 12 months. That is, if he’s re-elected.
Even if Biden wins and Democrats gain full control of Congress, the challenge shall be squeezing all of those ambitious ideas right into a large and growing budget deficit. Some costly priorities will inevitably fall by the wayside.
Biden’s budget would come with:
Medicare drugs. It would improve Medicare’s ability to barter drug prices. In 2022, Congress gave Medicare the flexibility to barter prices from 2026, nonetheless, just for 10 drugs, with the number steadily increasing by 15 to twenty per 12 months from 2027 to 2029. The pharmaceutical industry has filed several lawsuitsAttempting to dam even limited price negotiations under the 2022 law. Biden would also cap Medicare recipients’ out-of-pocket costs at $2 for a 30-day supply of certain generic drugs.
Medicare Sustainability. The programs Part A: Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is predicted to grow to be insolvent by 2031. Biden would improve his funds by raising taxes on high-income staff and allocating a number of the revenue from one other tax to the federal health care program. He would increase the Medicare tax Wages and unearned income tax rate from 3.8 percent to five percent for those with income over $400,000.
It would close a loophole that permits some high-income business owners to avoid paying Medicare taxes and shift revenue from them Net investment tax 2010 into the HI trust fund. This revenue currently goes into the federal government’s general fund. He would also reallocate all Part B and Part D savings from Medicare prescription drug reform to the hospital insurance trust fund.
Medicaid Home Care. Biden would increase federal funding for Medicaid Home and Community-Based Long-Term Care Services (HCBS) by $150 billion over 10 years. At the start of his term in office Biden proposed as much as $400 billion in latest federal funding for Medicaid HCBS but neither that plan nor a scaled-down version was approved by a Democratic Congress in 2021 or 2022. States and the federal government generally share Medicaid costs.
family holiday. Biden I’d try again to create a federal paid family and medical leave program administered by the Social Security Administration. Workers caring for seriously unwell relations and newborn or adopted children can be entitled to as much as 12 weeks of vacation and up to 3 days of vacation to mourn the death of a loved one. Biden also renewed his call for employers to offer staff with as much as seven days of paid sick leave to look after their very own health or that of their relations. Biden didn’t persuade Congress to pass a furlough program in his first three years in office.
Nursing homes. Biden guarantees to extend inspections of nursing homes. The federal government would fund 100% of required state surveys starting in 2026 and increase financial penalties for underperforming institutions greater disclosure of nursing home ownershipand increased inspections of facilities with serious safety deficiencies. Many states still haven’t caught up with their inspection backlogs, which were exacerbated by the pandemic. However, Biden shouldn’t be calling for major additional funding for nursing home initiatives.
Older Americans Act. The Budget for many non-Medicaid assistance for older adults would increase by about $70 billion. Funding for senior nutrition programs like Meals on Wheels would increase by about $83 billion, or 8 percent. Budgets for nearly all other Older Americans Act programs can be cut or frozen at this 12 months’s levels.
Social Security. Biden would increase administrative funding for Social Security, which should improve the agency’s ability to offer services to beneficiaries and claimants. He also guarantees to extend payroll taxes on high-income earners, although budget documents released yesterday don’t say how.
In his 2020 presidential campaign Biden proposed a plan to extend Social Security’s solvency However, for about five years he never pursued these ideas as president. This 12 months, Biden has repeatedly insisted that he wouldn’t make cuts to program services. However, if measures are usually not taken to enhance solvency, the federal government will only find a way to pay about 77 percent of promised advantages in about ten years.
Biden’s plan is ambitious and expensive. If he wins re-election, the query shall be: How much of it will possibly he achieve?
