In NC, Biden and Harris talk health care and lowering prescription drug prices

The trip to North Carolina came while the White House is criticizing health care policies within the Republican Study Committee’s 2025 budget proposal released on Wednesday. The proposal by the RSC — which is composed of 80% of Republicans in the House, including every member of House leadership — includes changes to Medicare and Medicaid.

It also calls for raising the age to qualify for Social Security. These proposals point to the viewpoint that the GOP may take on these issues should they hold the reins next year.

Trump, the GOP’s presumptive nominee, has faced questions on his stance on healthcare following an interview with CNBC where he suggested reforming “the bad management of entitlements” such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Trump’s campaign said he was referencing “cutting waste,” and not the programs, according to The Washington Post.

A news release by the House committee’s chairman, Kevin Hern, an Oklahoma congressman, says that the RSC proposal focuses on addressing the “federal spending problem” and starting to pay down debts.

The news release says that over 10 years the plan cuts spending by $16.7 trillion and reduces taxes by $5.3 trillion. The federal deficit is projected to grow to $1.8 trillion in 2025.

Social Security and Medicare also face insolvency over the next decade, meaning these programs may not have enough money to pay full benefits promised to taxpayers.

Jean-Pierre called the Biden administration’s plan to lower health care costs, especially prescription drug prices, in “stark contrast” to Republicans’ plan.

“Republicans want to attack ACA,” she said.

Republicans’ plan includes various changes to federal programs. In terms of Social Security, the plan dubbed the “Fiscal Sanity to Save America” calls for “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy” and for lowering some benefits for people making more money.

The RSC plan also calls to end Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices and throws support behind legislation that says life begins at conception. It also supports a bill giving rights to embryos, which some say could place in-vitro fertilization on uncertain ground. This comes as the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a case on Tuesday that could impact how women get access to mifepristone, a pill used for abortions.

In terms of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which are jointly funded by the federal government and the states, the plan appears to lower federal funds allocated to states.

The Republican plan suggests implementing Medicaid block grants, through which states receive federal Medicaid funding, irrespective of states’ actual costs, according to the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy. This would mean moving away from the current system under which the federal government covers a percentage of Medicaid and CHIP costs.

This would move the federal share in costs of these two programs closer to 50%, says the report. This ensures that states focus spending on “spending on mandatory benefits for vulnerable populations “ and not optional services, according to the report.

In North Carolina, the federal government currently covers about 66% of costs for the Medicaid non-expansion population and 75% under CHIP. It covers 90% of Medicaid coverage costs for the expansion population.

Medicaid expansion became law in North Carolina this past year, after an agreement between legislative GOP leaders and Cooper expanded eligibility based on income for hundreds of thousands of people.

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