President Biden’s 2024 Health Care Budget

Presidential budget proposal sets stage for negotiations, debate in Washington

March 08, 2023

The future of Medicare and the price of prescription drugs are among the top priorities in President Biden’s 2024 budget plan.

President Biden is expected to visit Philadelphia tomorrow to unveil his fiscal year 2024 budget. The plan includes several proposals that aim to preserve the Medicare program and target the cost of prescription drugs.

“Medicare is more than a government program,” President Biden wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times this week. “It’s the rock-solid guarantee that Americans have counted on to be there for them when they retire.”

Here’s what you need to know:

• Medicare’s solvency:  The budget proposal seeks to extend the solvency of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund by at least 25 years through an increase in the Medicare tax rate on earned and unearned income above $400,000.
  • The proposal also seeks to close loopholes that affect contributions to the HI trust fund. 
• Cost of common prescriptions:  The budget includes Part D cost-sharing on certain common generic drugs for hypertension and cholesterol to $2 per prescription.
  • It also looks to expand drug price negotiation for more prescription drugs.
• Behavioral health benefits:  The proposal would eliminate cost-sharing for three mental health or other behavioral health visits per year and require parity between physical health and mental health Medicare coverage.
• Notable:  Without action, the HI trust fund would be exhausted by 2033, the Congressional Budget Office noted in a recent report.
• Up next:  The unveiling of Biden’s budget proposal kicks off a period of intense negotiations and debate over federal spending, the deficit and debt ceiling, and the future of Medicare and other government programs.

HAP continues to monitor the latest federal budget developments and will provide updates to members. A fact sheet about Biden’s 2024 budget proposal is available online.

For more information, contact John Myers, HAP’s vice president, federal advocacy.