The administration of US President Joe Biden is proposing to raise taxes on Americans who earn more than $400,000 a year to fund the Medicare health plan.
The new funds would give the government more power to negotiate the sale prices of medicines.
The bill is part of the White House’s idea to expand the affordability of health insurance.
“The bill I introduced this week will make Medicare trust funds solvent after 2050, without reducing benefits,” Biden said in an opinion piece published in the New York Times this Tuesday March 7th.
“In fact, we can get better value by making sure Americans get better care for the money they currently pay for Medicare,” Biden added.
The project, of which the details will be known on Thursday, March 9, proposes raising Medicare taxes from 3.8 percent to 5 percent on Americans with annual incomes of more than $400,000.
At the same time, it proposes to eliminate a loophole in the law that allows some business owners and some people with very high incomes to avoid paying taxes.
Biden’s plan also includes changes to bolster Medicare reserves by saving billions of dollars in prescription drug formulary reforms.
The measures are part of the dispute between the White House and Republicans, who are seeking to push for deep cuts in federal spending.
Biden and doubts about Medicare
Regardless of intentions, Biden’s plan with Medicare has little chance of becoming law. This is so because the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2023.
Biden knows this, but the proposal is an important signal when it comes to exposing the problems with the Republican idea of limiting public spending.
Following the publication of Biden’s commune of opinion in the NYT, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the GOP will not touch Medicare or Social Security.
The Democratic party and Biden himself have been saying that the Republicans want to review the entitlement programs by reducing eligibility and benefits. In this regard, White House officials told McCarthy to specify where he is going to cut spending.
The Trust Fund administered by Medicare pays for hospital stays, nursing facilities, and hospices for low-income Americans.
It is projected to become insolvent in 2028, according to the latest report from the plan administrators.
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