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Benefit Restrictions Beyond Those in Senate Immigration Bill Would Jeopardize Legalization for Many and Risk Severe Hardships for Others
June 14, 2013
The Senate immigration reform bill establishes a long and difficult path to legal status that includes substantial fees and fines and tough restrictions on eligibility for federal assistance for immigrants who newly convert to a legal status. Yet, there will be efforts on the Senate floor to make it considerably more difficult for … -
Media Briefing: Understanding the Annual Reports of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees
June 3, 2013
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Medicare Is Not “Bankrupt”
Updated June 3, 2013
Claims by some policymakers that the Medicare program is nearing “bankruptcy” are misleading. Although Medicare faces financing challenges, the program is not on the verge of bankruptcy or ceasing to operate. Such charges represent misunderstanding (or misrepresentation) of Medicare’s finances. … -
Statement of Paul Van de Water, Senior Fellow, on the 2013 Medicare Trustees' Report
May 31, 2013
Medicare has grown financially stronger in both the short and long term compared to last year, but it continues to face financing challenges in the long run, today’s new report from its trustees shows. The projected date of insolvency for Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) … -
Paul Van de Water Testimony: Health Reform’s Health Insurance Tax
May 9, 2013
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Hahn, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will extend health insurance coverage to 27 million people and help assure that Americans have access to affordable coverage. And it will do so in a fiscally responsible way. In … -
Medicaid Per Capita Cap Would Shift Costs to States and Undermine Key Part of Health Reform
May 8, 2013
Two prominent congressional Republicans have proposed placing a “per capita cap” on federal Medicaid funding, under which the federal government would no longer cover a fixed share of each state’s overall Medicaid costs but instead would limit each state to a fixed dollar amount per beneficiary.[1] The per capita cap … -
Policy Basics: Introduction to Medicaid
Updated May 8, 2013
What Is Medicaid? Created by Congress in 1965, Medicaid is a public insurance program that provides health coverage to low-income families and individuals, including children, parents, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities. Medicaid is funded jointly by the federal government and … -
Online Services for Key Low-Income Benefit Programs
Revised May 1, 2013
Virtually all states have made basic program information on the five main state-administered low-income benefit programs — SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as Food Stamps), Medicaid, CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), and child care assistance … -
Obama Proposal to Limit Tax Breaks for High-Income Households Would Reduce Total Charitable Contributions By a Modest 1.6 to 3.0 Percent
Revised April 30, 2013
The President’s fiscal year 2014 budget includes a proposal from previous Obama budgets to limit the tax subsidies that affluent Americans take for deductible expenses and some other tax expenditures. After the President made this proposal in previous budgets, some critics contended it would lead to substantial reductions in … -
Commentary: Think Obama’s Medicare Savings Aren’t Significant? Take a Closer Look.
April 23, 2013
Commentators, pundits, and some policymakers routinely say that while the President’s new budget takes useful steps to reduce the cost of health care programs, the steps are small and rather timid. This judgment seems rooted in the belief that the budget’s changes affecting Medicare beneficiaries, which save a modest $64 … -
Policy Basics: Federal Payroll Taxes
Updated April 15, 2013
The federal government levies payroll taxes primarily on wages and self-employment income and uses most of the revenue to fund Social Security, Medicare, and other social insurance benefits. Federal payroll taxes generated $845 billion in 2012, or 35 percent of all federal revenues (see “Policy Basics: Where Do Federal Tax Revenues Come From?”). … -
President Obama’s Deficit-Reduction Package and Other Proposals in the 2014 Budget
April 11, 2013
The President’s 2014 budget is presented in two parts. One part includes the package of deficit- reduction policies that the President included in his last offer to Speaker Boehner during the “fiscal cliff” negotiations in December 2012. This package would reduce the deficit by $1.8 trillion over the next decade … -
Making Health Care More Affordable: The New Premium and Cost-Sharing Assistance
Updated April 3, 2013
Under the new health reform law, people of modest means will get help paying for health insurance premiums and “cost-sharing” expenses — costs that people with insurance have to pay out-of-pocket like co-payments for doctor visits and hospital care — beginning in 2014. This help will come in the form of … -
Ryan Block Grant Proposal Would Cut Medicaid by Nearly One-Third by 2023 and More After That
March 26, 2013
The Medicaid block grant proposal in the budget plan proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, which the House of Representatives passed on March 21, would cut federal Medicaid (and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP) funding by 31 percent by 2023, because the funding would no longer keep pace with health … -
Ryan Roundup 2013: Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan’s Latest Budget
March 22, 2013
Below is a compilation of the CBPP analyses and blog posts on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget, which the House has passed. Overview/General Statement: Robert Greenstein, President, on Chairman Ryan’s Budget Plan March 12, 2013 “When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his previous budget last … -
Ryan Budget Would Undermine Safety Net’s Work Supports
March 21, 2013
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan justifies the massive cuts he proposes in programs for low- and moderate-income Americans in part by claiming that the current safety net “can create a powerful disincentive to get ahead.”[1] He uses this argument to defend converting both Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition … -
An Apples-to-Apples Comparison of the Deficit-Reduction Figures in the House and Senate Budget Plans
March 19, 2013
The House and Senate are scheduled to consider the budget resolutions that their respective budget committees approved last week. These two budgets — one drafted by House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan, the other by Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray — offer sharply contrasting visions.[1] Yet they are not … -
Statement by Robert Greenstein, President, On Unifying the District of Columbia’s Health Insurance Marketplace
March 19, 2013
“The DC Health Benefits Exchange Board’s recent decision to move to a unified health insurance market over the next two years will make it easier for small businesses to give their employees quality, affordable health insurance. “Starting in 2014, under the Affordable Care … -
Paul Van de Water Testimony: Financing Medicare and Medicaid
March 19, 2013
Chairman Pitts, Ranking Member Pallone, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today on the importance of preserving Medicare and Medicaid. Budgetary entitlements of many kinds are designed to guarantee Americans adequate protection in case of illness, disability, or economic misfortune. Efforts … -
Medicare in Ryan’s 2014 Budget
March 15, 2013
The Medicare proposals in the 2014 budget resolution developed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) are essentially the same as those in last year’s Ryan budget. Once again, Chairman Ryan proposes to replace Medicare’s guarantee of health coverage with a premium-support voucher and raise the age of eligibility … -
Chairman Ryan Gets 66 Percent of His Budget Cuts from Programs for People With Low or Moderate Incomes
March 15, 2013
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget plan would get at least 66 percent of its $5 trillion in non-defense budget cuts over ten years (relative to a continuation of current policies) from programs that serve people of limited means, standing a core principle of the Simpson-Bowles fiscal commission on its head. Not much … -
Commentary: Murray’s More Evenhanded Approach to Deficit Reduction Contrasts Sharply With Ryan’s
March 14, 2013
The budget that Senate Budget Committee Chair Patty Murray released yesterday stands in sharp contrast to the one that her House counterpart, Paul Ryan, released on Tuesday. As I wrote Tuesday, his budget is extreme.[1] Hers is more balanced and appropriate to meet the nation’s economic and fiscal challenges. The … -
Statement by Robert Greenstein, President, On Chairman Ryan’s Budget Plan
March 12, 2013
When House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan released his previous budget last year, I wrote that for most of the past half century, its extreme nature would have put it outside the bounds of mainstream discussion. It was, I wrote, “Robin Hood in reverse — on … -
Deficit Reduction Should Not Increase Poverty and Hardship
March 11, 2013
Executive Summary With President Obama and lawmakers of both parties vowing to achieve further deficit reduction, the stakes are high for low- and moderate-income Americans. If policymakers heavily target programs that serve vulnerable Americans, they will run the risk of increasing poverty and hardship and reducing opportunity for … -
Excise Tax on Medical Devices Should Not Be Repealed
Updated March 11, 2013
Bills introduced in the House (H.R. 523) and Senate (S. 232) would repeal the 2.3-percent excise tax on medical devices that policymakers enacted in 2010 to help pay for health reform. The provision is sound, however, and the arguments against the tax don’t withstand scrutiny. The tax does not single out the medical … -
Paul Van de Water Testimony: Health Reform’s Tax Provisions Are Sound Health and Tax Policy
March 5, 2013
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lewis, and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will extend health insurance coverage to 27 million people and help assure that Americans have access to affordable coverage. And it will do so in a fiscally responsible way. In … -
Testimony of Robert Greenstein, President, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Before the Senate Committee on Finance
February 26, 2013
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Finance Committee, I appreciate the invitation to testify here today. As we all know, the nation faces fiscal and economic challenges, and we will have to make some tough decisions to put the budget on a more sustainable fiscal course and to do so without hindering a still-too-weak economic … -
Comparison of Benefits for Poor Families to Middle-Class Incomes Is Deeply Flawed
February 25, 2013
Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) recently posted to the Senate Budget Committee website a document that implies that programs targeted to low-income people provide lavish benefits that raise the typical poor household’s standard-of-living above that of the typical middle-income household.[1] The Sessions release, however, is deeply … -
Testimony of Robert Greenstein, President, Before Senate Budget Committee
February 13, 2013
I appreciate the invitation to testify today on the impact of federal budget decisions on families and communities. This is an important matter. As you know, the nation will have to make tough decisions to put the budget on a more sustainable fiscal course. The issue is not only whether policymakers act to secure adequate … -
State Policy Decisions in Exchange Implementation
Updated February 12, 2013
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) establishes a health insurance exchange in every state. Exchanges are new competitive marketplaces offering an array of comprehensive health insurance plans for eligible small businesses and individuals, some of whom may qualify for federal tax credits to help cover the cost of coverage. Each exchange will be operated either by the state as a … -
Commentary: How Effective Is the Safety Net?
February 6, 2013
Nicholas Kristof published an important column in the New York Times recently about young children in some poor communities who face greatly diminished opportunities by the time they’re just 2 years old.[1] “Many low-income children never reach the starting line,” he notes. Kristof points out that there are no magic … -
“Boehner Rule” Linking Debt-Ceiling Increase to Spending Cuts Is Dangerous Policy
January 25, 2013
House Speaker John Boehner has argued that “any increase in the debt limit has to be accompanied by spending reductions that equal or exceed it.”[1] The Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011, which ended the previous debt-limit showdown, paired a $2.1-trillion increase in the debt ceiling with spending cuts of similar size.[2] … -
Achieving Further Deficit Reduction Solely Through Spending Cuts Entails Cutting Entitlements That Benefit the Poor and Middle Class While Shielding the Biggest Entitlements for the Wealthy
January 9, 2013
Since President Obama and Congress enacted the “fiscal cliff” budget deal, congressional Republican leaders have vowed not to raise a dollar more in taxes for deficit reduction. All further deficit reduction, they say, must come from budget cuts, primarily from entitlement programs. That, however, would spare the broad … -
Commentary: Next Round on the Deficit
January 7, 2013
In recent days, policymakers, pundits, and the media have debated whether the “fiscal cliff” budget deal was a victory or defeat for the President or congressional Republicans, progressives or conservatives, rich or poor, the economy or the deficit — you name it. Most of the commentary is unpersuasive, however, for … -
Coordinating Human Services Programs with Health Reform Implementation
Updated December 11, 2012
Executive Summary By making affordable health care available to millions of low-income, uninsured Americans, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will go a long way towards helping families who struggle on a daily basis to afford life’s most basic necessities. Health care reform’s impact on low-income people’s lives, however, goes beyond … -
Non-Defense Discretionary Programs Will Face Serious Pressures Under Current Funding Caps
Revised December 6, 2012
President Obama and Congress achieved $1.5 trillion in discretionary program cuts over the next ten years primarily by setting tight caps on annual discretionary funding in the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011.[1] Congress adhered to those caps in 2012 in writing its appropriations bills for that year, but has yet to enact final … -
Statement of Robert Greenstein, President, in Response to Republican Budget Offer
December 4, 2012
House Republican leaders portray the deficit-reduction offer that they issued yesterday as a fair middle ground. It isn’t. On the crucial issue of revenues, the new Republican offer proposes $800 billion over ten years. Contrast that with the plan that Erskine Bowles, Alan Simpson, and some members of their commission issued in December 2010, … -
Testimony before the New Jersey Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee
November 19, 2012
Good afternoon. I appreciate the opportunity to testify today. My name is January Angeles and I am a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research and policy organization based in Washington, DC. Founded in 1981, the Center conducts … -
Are Low-Income Programs Enlarging the Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Problem?
Revised November 2, 2012
Several conservative analysts and some journalists lately have cited figures showing substantial growth in recent years in the cost of federal programs for low-income Americans. A recent report the Congressional Research Service prepared for Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) provides one such set of figures.[1] These figures can create … -
Moving “Dual Eligibles” Into Mandatory Managed Care and Capping Their Federal Funding Would Risk Significant Harm to Poor Seniors and People With Disabilities
October 10, 2012
As policymakers seek to reduce federal budget deficits, they may face proposals to reduce spending on low-income Medicare beneficiaries who also are eligible for Medicaid (the “dual eligibles”) by 1) requiring them to receive both their Medicare- and Medicaid-covered services through a single managed care plan that would operate … -
Medicaid Per Capita Cap Would Shift Costs to States and Place Low-Income Beneficiaries at Risk
October 4, 2012
Some policymakers have recently proposed placing a “per capita cap” on federal Medicaid funding, under which the federal government would no longer cover a fixed share of each state’s overall Medicaid costs but instead would limit each state to a fixed dollar amount per beneficiary.[1] A per capita cap would represent … -
Romney Budget Proposals Would Necessitate Very Large Cuts in Medicaid, Education, Health Research and Other Programs
Updated September 24, 2012
Governor Mitt Romney’s proposals to cap total federal spending at 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and boost defense spending to 4 percent of GDP would require very large cuts in other programs, both entitlements and discretionary programs. This update of an earlier analysis is based on updated economic and budget … -
Uninsured Rate Fell or Held Steady in Almost Every State Last Year, New Census Data Show
September 21, 2012
The share of residents without health coverage fell in 20 states last year, Census data released yesterday show, while rising in just one. This improvement largely reflect increased private coverage among young adults — helped by a health reform provision allowing them to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26 … -
2011’s Decline in Uninsured is Largest in 13 Years, but Median Income Fell, Inequality Widened, and Poverty Stayed Flat
September 17, 2012
The Census Bureau last week released a mixed set of data about poverty, income, and health insurance coverage in 2011.[1] On the positive side, the number of Americans without health insurance dropped by 1.3 million and the share of uninsured Americans fell by more than in any year since 1999. Young adults took advantage of a … -
Number of Uninsured Fell in 2011, Largely Due to Health Reform and Public Programs
September 13, 2012
The Census Bureau announced yesterday that, in 2011, the number of uninsured Americans fell for the first time in four years, and the percentage of Americans without health insurance experienced the largest single-year drop since 1999. The Census data suggest that health reform and other federal policies are responsible for a significant … -
Statement of Robert Greenstein, President, on Census’ 2011 Poverty, Income, and Health Insurance Data
September 12, 2012
Today’s Census data contained the good, the fair, and the ugly. The good news is that the number of uninsured Americans dropped by 1.3 million and the share of Americans without insurance fell by more than in any year since 1999; the fair news is that the poverty rate stayed flat after … -
Media Briefing: Examining the 2011 Census Data on Poverty, Health Insurance Coverage, and Income
September 12, 2012
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities held a conference call briefing to examine the Census Bureau data for 2011 on poverty, health insurance coverage, and income trends.
Robert Greenstein, the Center’s President, was joined by Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow, to discuss the new data.
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The Census Bureau’s Upcoming Report on Health Insurance Coverage in 2011: What to Watch For
September 10, 2012
On September 12, the Census Bureau will release estimates of the number of Americans with and without health insurance coverage in 2011, based on its annual Current Population Survey. Other survey data and historical trends provide clues as to what the Census data are likely to show. Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease … -
How Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion Will Impact State Budgets
Revised July 25, 2012
Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that states can choose whether to adopt the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion to cover low-income parents and other adults, some governors declared that they will forgo the expansion, claiming it would place a heavy financial burden on their states.[1] Claims that states will bear a … -
Health Reform Law Makes Clear That Subsidies Will Be Available in States with Federally Operated Exchanges
July 16, 2012
Some health reform opponents claim that the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) premium tax credits to help low- and moderate-income uninsured people buy coverage through the new health insurance exchanges are only available in states that have set up their own exchanges, not in states with federally operated exchanges. A group of … -
Statement of Robert Greenstein, President: Court Decision Will Allow Health Reform to Bring Major Benefits to the Nation, Especially If States Do Their Job
June 28, 2012
Today’s Supreme Court decision allows the nation to reap the very substantial benefits of the Affordable Care Act: health insurance coverage for millions of uninsured Americans, important consumer protections for millions of insured Americans whose coverage has serious gaps, and the promise of progress in slowing the growth of health care costs. States and the federal government should move … -
Limitation on Use of Tax-Advantaged Health Accounts Should Not Be Repealed
June 5, 2012
The House will consider legislation this week to repeal the health reform law’s limitation on the use of flexible spending accounts (FSAs) and other tax-advantaged accounts to buy over-the-counter medicines. The limitation makes sense both as tax policy and as health policy and should not be repealed. (The bill, H.R. 436, … -
House Legislation Would Cause 350,000 People to Forgo Health Coverage and Could Jeopardize Health Reform
June 5, 2012
The House is set to consider legislation this week that would make a change in the subsidies that health reform (the Affordable Care Act) provides to help low- and moderate-income people buy health insurance, causing 350,000 of them to forgo coverage and making it harder for health reform’s insurance exchanges to work effectively. The … -
Statement by Robert Greenstein, President, on Speaker Boehner's Recent Remarks Concerning the Debt Limit
May 16, 2012
No one should underestimate the significance of House Speaker John Boehner's declaration yesterday that he will block an increase in the debt limit next winter unless policymakers match each dollar of debt limit increase with at least a dollar in budget cuts, with no revenue increases. This … -
Lower-Than-Expected Medicare Drug Costs Mostly Reflect Lower Enrollment and Slowing of Overall Drug Spending, Not Reliance on Private Plans
May 14, 2012
The House-passed budget would convert Medicare to a "premium support" voucher to purchase private health insurance or traditional Medicare.[1] Some supporters of premium support — most notably House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, who designed the House proposal — claim that reliance on private insurers would lower Medicare costs. As … -
Romney Budget Proposals Would Require Massive Cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Other Programs
Revised May 12, 2012
This report has been superseded by a new version, dated September 24, 2012, that reflects updated data and other information. Click to view the new analysis. Governor Mitt Romney’s proposals to cap total federal spending, boost defense spending, cut taxes, and balance the budget would require extraordinarily large cuts in other programs, both … -
House Budget Bills Would Target Programs for Lower-Income Families While Breaking Last Summer's Bipartisan Deal
Updated May 10, 2012
The House Budget Committee approved on May 7 a package of two bills that would alter the bipartisan deal between President Obama and congressional leaders that was reflected in last summer’s Budget Control Act (BCA). It would eliminate the “sequestration” (automatic cuts) in discretionary programs scheduled for 2013 as … -
Toomey Budget Similar to House-Passed Ryan Budget
May 9, 2012
The Senate may take up, as early as this week, a budget proposal from Senator Patrick J. Toomey (R-PA)[1] that is similar in most important respects to the budget resolution from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), which the House passed on March 29. [2] Like the Ryan budget, the Toomey plan (S. Con. Res. 37) would protect and extend tax cuts that … -
Testimony of Paul N. Van de Water - Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Before the Subcommittee on Oversight Committee on Ways and Means U.S. House of Representatives
April 25, 2012
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lewis, members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the invitation to appear before you today. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) includes a number of spending reductions and tax increases designed to assure that expanding health coverage does not drive up the deficit. Some provisions limit the use of tax-advantaged … -
House Bill Would Cut Medicaid Funding for Puerto Rico by About $5.5 Billion Through 2019
April 25, 2012
The House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to pass legislation on April 25 that would cut federal Medicaid funding for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico by about $5.5 billion through 2019, relative to current law. The provision is part of legislation that House Republicans are assembling, and plan to bring to the House floor in … -
Medicaid Maintenance-of-Effort Requirement Does Not Stop States from Fighting Fraud
Updated April 24, 2012
Affordable Care Act provisions requiring states to maintain their eligibility standards and procedures for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program do not impede states’ efforts to ensure program integrity and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse, contrary to claims of House members who seek their repeal. Moreover, … -
Media Briefing: Understanding the Annual Reports of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees
April 23, 2012
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities held a conference call briefing on Monday, April 23 at 4:00 pm (ET) to discuss the 2012 reports of the Social Security and Medicare Trustees.
Paul Van de Water, Senior Fellow at the Center and one of Washington’s leading experts on both Social Security and Medicare, and Robert Greenstein, President of CBPP discussed what the reports say about the long-term financial status of Social Security and Medicare.
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Statement of Paul Van de Water, Senior Fellow, on the 2012 Medicare Trustees’ Report
April 23, 2012
The new report from Medicare’s trustees shows little change from last year’s report in the near-term outlook for the program, while indicating that the program continues to face significant financing challenges in the long run. The projected date of insolvency for Medicare’s … -
The False Choice of National Defense Versus Helping the Poor
April 20, 2012
House committees this week approved sharp cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), the elimination of the Social Services Block Grant, and other cuts that would harm large numbers of low- and moderate-income Americans.[1] Proponents claim the cuts are needed to generate enough savings … -
What if Chairman Ryan’s Medicaid Block Grant Had Taken Effect in 2001?
April 20, 2012
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposal to convert Medicaid to a block grant, which the House recently passed as part of Chairman Ryan’s overall budget plan, would have cut federal Medicaid funds to most states by more than 35 percent by 2010 — and to several of them by more than 50 percent — if it had been … -
Provision in House Reconciliation Bill Would Cause 350,000 People to Forgo Health Coverage and Could Jeopardize Health Reform
April 18, 2012
The package of changes that the House Ways and Means Committee approved today in response to reconciliation instructions in the House budget resolution includes a change in the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies that would cause 350,000 people to forgo coverage and make it more difficult for the health reform law’s insurance … -
Letter: Improving the Strength and Solvency of Medicare
April 18, 2012
The Honorable Phil Gingrey, M.D. U.S. House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 202515 Dear Congressman: We are pleased to respond to the letter of March 22 from you and your colleagues asking our views on how to improve the “strength and solvency of Medicare.” We divide our response into three parts: some background … -
Testimony: Robert Greenstein Before the House Budget Committee Hearing on Strengthening the Safety Net
April 17, 2012
Thank you for the invitation to testify today. I am Bob Greenstein, President of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a policy institute located here in Washington. I also served many years ago as Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service at USDA, which operates the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, … -
Medicare in the Ryan Budget
March 28, 2012
The budget resolution developed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) would make significant changes to Medicare. It would replace Medicare’s current guarantee of coverage with a premium-support voucher, raise the age of eligibility from 65 to 67, and reopen the “doughnut hole” in Medicare’s coverage of … -
Cooper-LaTourette Budget Significantly to the Right of Simpson-Bowles Plan
March 28, 2012
Reps. Jim Cooper (D-TN) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) unveiled a budget plan on March 27 that they call the “Simpson-Bowles Budget.” It departs significantly, however, from the Bowles-Simpson commission plan in key respects — raising taxes much less, cutting much more from non-security discretionary programs and less from defense and … -
Federal Government Will Pick Up Nearly All Costs of Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion
Updated March 28, 2012
For updated data, view this report: How Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion Will Impact State Budgets July 12, 2012 Claims that states will bear a significant share of the costs of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion — and that this will place a heavy financial burden on states — do not hold up under scrutiny. … -
Ryan Medicaid Block Grant Would Cut Medicaid by One-Third by 2022 and More After That
March 27, 2012
The Medicaid block-grant proposal in the Ryan budget that the House of Representatives will vote on this week would cut federal Medicaid funding by 34 percent by 2022 (on top of repealing the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion) because the funding would no longer keep pace with health care costs or with expected Medicaid … -
Blog Post: Ryan Roundup, 2012: Everything You Need to Know About Chairman Ryan's Budget
March 23, 2012
Below is a compilation of the CBPP blog posts to date on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget. Check back here frequently, as we will update this list as we put out new material. http://bit.ly/RyanPosts Overview/General Greenstein Statement March 21, 2012 "The new Ryan budget is a … -
Blog Post: Low-Income Programs Would Bear the Brunt of Ryan Cuts
March 23, 2012
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Chairman Ryan Gets 62 Percent of His Huge Budget Cuts from Programs for Lower-Income Americans
March 23, 2012
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget plan would get at least 62 percent of its $5.3 trillion in nondefense budget cuts over ten years (relative to a continuation of current policies) from programs that serve people of limited means. This stands a core principle of President Obama’s fiscal commission on its head and … -
Blog Post: Greenstein on the Ryan Budget
March 21, 2012
We’ve issued a statement from Robert Greenstein on the budget from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. Here’s the opening: The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is … -
Statement of Robert Greenstein, President, on Chairman Ryan's Budget Plan
March 21, 2012
The new Ryan budget is a remarkable document — one that, for most of the past half-century, would have been outside the bounds of mainstream discussion due to its extreme nature. In essence, this budget is Robin Hood in reverse — on steroids. It would likely produce the largest redistribution of income from the bottom to the top in modern U.S.… -
Blog Post: Ryan’s Rx for Medicaid Would Add Millions to the Uninsured and Underinsured
March 20, 2012
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget again proposes to radically restructure Medicaid by converting it into a block grant and to slash federal funding by about one-fifth over the next decade (as well as to repeal health reform’s Medicaid expansion). All told, it would add tens of millions of Americans to the ranks of the uninsured and underinsured. Repealing the … -
Blog Post: A First Look at the Ryan Budget
March 20, 2012
We’ve issued a brief analysis of House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget plan. Here’s the opening: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget plan specifies a long-term spending path under which, by 2050, most of the federal government aside from Social Security, health care, and defense would cease to … -
What You Need to Know About Premium Support
March 19, 2012
The budget resolution that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) will unveil this week is expected to include a Medicare premium support proposal fashioned by Ryan and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR). Although billed as a kinder, gentler form of premium support, the Ryan-Wyden plan has the same basic features as earlier premium … -
Media Briefing: Should IPAB Be Repealed?
March 19, 2012
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities held a conference call briefing discuss the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a health care cost-control mechanism created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), in advance of a House vote to repeal it.
Uwe Reinhardt, a leading authority on health care economics, and Peter Orszag, former director of the White House Office and Management and Budget who has focused on health care cost containment issues, joined the Center’s Paul Van de Water to discuss IPAB’s potential to help preserve and improve Medicare and rein in cost growth.
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Claimed State Savings from Rhode Island’s Medicaid Cap Heavily Overblown, Report Shows
March 16, 2012
Rhode Island has operated its Medicaid program since 2009 under a waiver that caps the federal financing available to the state. Some proponents of converting the Medicaid program nationally to a block grant have argued that the waiver — and its Medicaid funding cap — have generated substantial savings for Rhode Island, … -
Independent Payment Advisory Board Will Help Reduce Health Costs
March 15, 2012
The health reform legislation enacted in 2010 (the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) establishes the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB — a presidentially appointed commission that will help slow the growth of Medicare costs if those costs are projected to exceed a specified target level.[1] Other cost-control measures included … -
Chained CPI Can Be Part of a Balanced Deficit-Reduction Package, Under Certain Conditions
February 22, 2012
A proposal included in several deficit-reduction packages — those from fiscal commission co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the Domenici-Rivlin panel, and the Senate "Gang of Six" — would shift from the regular or official Consumer Price Index (CPI) to the "superlative" or "chained" CPI when … -
Contrary to "Entitlement Society" Rhetoric, Over Nine-Tenths of Entitlement Benefits Go to Elderly, Disabled, or Working Households
February 10, 2012
Some conservative critics of federal social programs, including leading presidential candidates, are sounding an alarm that the United States is rapidly becoming an “entitlement society” in which social programs are undermining the work ethic and creating a large class of Americans who prefer to depend on government benefits rather … -
Georgia’s Tax Breaks to Increase Use of Health Savings Accounts Did Not Expand Health Coverage
Revised February 10, 2012
New data show that an approach to covering the uninsured that Newt Gingrich's Center for Health Transformation (CHT) largely designed and heavily promoted to Georgia policymakers — and that Georgia adopted in 2008 — has failed to produce the promised results. The Georgia plan features multiple tax breaks to expand the use of … -
Romney's Charge That Most Federal Low-Income Spending Goes for "Overhead" and "Bureaucrats" Is False
Updated January 23, 2012
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has endorsed a proposal to eliminate major federal assistance programs for low-income Americans and turn them over to the states, often with deep funding cuts. But the rationale he offered for doing so in this past Sunday’s “Meet the Press” debate — that the federal bureaucracy … -
The Case Against Premium Support
December 21, 2011
On December 16, 2011, the Brookings Institution's project on Budgeting for National Priorities hosted a discussion of the proposal for Medicare premium support developed by former Office of Management and Budget Director Alice Rivlin and former Senator Pete Domenici. [1] That proposal, and the markedly similar proposal advanced by House … -
Ryan-Wyden Premium Support Proposal Not What It May Seem
Revised December 21, 2011
The proposal for Medicare premium support by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) differs in key respects from how many media reports are describing it.[1] Despite claims to the contrary, it likely would shift substantial costs to beneficiaries rather than protect them from such cost increases, could … -
Media Briefing: A Closer Look at the Ryan-Wyden Plan to Reform Medicare
December 20, 2011
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities held a conference call briefing on Tuesday, December 20 at 12:30 pm (ET) to discuss the new Medicare reform framework put forth by Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Ron Wyden. Ezekiel Emanuel, a world-renowned bioethicist and health care expert, former Special Adviser for Health Policy to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy and Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, and Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress joined CBPP's Senior Fellow Paul Van de Water, and CBPP President, Robert Greenstein to discuss the implications of the Ryan-Wyden plan on Medicare, its beneficiaries, and health care costs.
Duration: 18:27
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General Assistance Programs: Safety Net Weakening Despite Increased Need
Updated December 19, 2011
State General Assistance programs, which provide a safety net of last resort for those who are very poor and do not qualify for other public assistance, have weakened considerably in recent decades and are continuing to do so, despite the large increase in need resulting from the recession. This report discusses how General Assistance Programs … -
Senate’s Balanced Budget Amendment Could Force Deep Cuts in Aid to States
December 14, 2011
The Republican-sponsored version of a constitutional balanced budget amendment, which the Senate voted on today, would require enormous federal budget cuts, very likely resulting in dramatic reductions in federal grants to states and localities for services ranging from education to highway maintenance to public safety. The attached … -
Provision in House Republican Payroll Tax Bill Would Cause 170,000 People to Forgo Health Coverage and Could Jeopardize Health Reform
December 12, 2011
The House Republican payroll-tax bill unveiled December 9 includes a change in the Affordable Care Act’s subsidies that would cause 170,000 people to forgo coverage and make it more difficult for the health reform law’s insurance exchanges to function effectively. The provision in question would substantially increase the … -
Allowing Insurers to Withhold Data on Enrollees’ Health Status Could Undermine Key Part of Health Reform
December 12, 2011
Risk adjustment is one of the critical elements of health reform (i.e., the Affordable Care Act, or ACA) that’s designed to encourage insurers to compete based on price and quality — not on attracting the healthiest enrollees and deterring those in poorer health, as they typically do today in the individual and small-group … -
Program Cuts Under a Balanced Budget Amendment: How Severe Might They Be?
November 15, 2011
The constitutional balanced budget amendment that the House is expected to consider this week could force Congress to cut all programs by an average of 17.3 percent by 2018. If revenues are not raised (the House-passed budget resolution assumes no increase above current-policy levels) and all programs are cut by the same percentage, … -
Plan From Toomey, Other Republicans Not a First Step Toward Balanced Deficit Reduction
November 10, 2011
Senator Pat Toomey and other Republicans on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (“Supercommittee”) portray their new offer to raise close to $300 billion in revenues (under a plan to reduce deficits by about $1.5 trillion over ten years) as a significant concession, and some observers have suggested it represents a … -
Democrats Offer Significant Concessions
Revised November 1, 2011
The new deficit-reduction plan from several Democrats on the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the "supercommittee") marks a dramatic departure from traditional Democratic positions — and actually stands well to the right of plans by the co-chairs of the bipartisan Bowles-Simpson commission and the … -
Republican Plan Contains Minuscule Revenue Increase Alongside Deep Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid
October 31, 2011
The latest proposal by Republicans on the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the "supercommittee") contains virtually no new revenue and deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid. In those respects, it represents little change from earlier Republican budget proposals. It stands in contrast to last week's … -
Statement: Paul N. Van de Water, Senior Fellow, on the CLASS Act
October 14, 2011
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ announcement today that her department has not been able to design a financially self-sustaining CLASS program within the law’s boundaries is sad but not surprising. It does not, however, eliminate the need for new … -
Converting Medicare to Premium Support Would Likely Lead to Two-Tier Health Care System
September 26, 2011
Some policymakers and analysts have proposed to convert Medicare to a "premium support" system — that is, replace its guarantee of health coverage with a flat payment that beneficiaries could use to help them purchase private insurance or, in some versions, traditional Medicare. But proponents have crafted a …
