The White House will not stop Sen. Bernie Sanders from trying to expand Medicare as part of a possible $6 trillion infrastructure-plus reconciliation bill, according to a top aide to President Joe Biden.
That is despite the White House’s decision to omit a Medicare expansion from both of Biden’s infrastructure plans, White House senior adviser Anita Dunn said Friday.
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Sanders, the Vermont socialist, wants the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies before reinvesting the revenue to broaden the social welfare program’s coverage and eligibility age requirements.
“He certainly supports giving Medicare the authority and the power to negotiate drug prices. He also supports the expansion of Medicare benefits to cover hearing aids, eyeglasses,” Dunn said of Biden, adding dental to the list. “As well as lowering the age to 60.”
Many of Sanders’s ideas were included in his and Biden’s Unity Task Force healthcare recommendations published during the campaign, and Biden’s first budget request to Congress urged lawmakers to enact reforms, Dunn contended.
Sanders and his chairman counterpart on the House Budget Committee, John Yarmuth, will work with congressional leadership and other members on the reconciliation measure. But the White House will “be heavily involved” regarding legislative priorities, pushing specifically for clean energy tax credits, housing, and the care economy, Dunn said.
Another area of disagreement will likely be how to pay for the package. Dunn insisted any discord is part of the process, regardless of a reported tendency to declare talks dead.
“There will be a lot of back and forth between now and then,” she said. “You’d be amazed at how many times you can bring that patient back.”
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The reconciliation bill is being drafted to complement the $1.2 trillion bipartisan deal brokered to fund traditional infrastructure projects. Biden almost derailed the framework by threatening to veto it if Congress did not also pass reconciliation language. He later softened his tone, but has repeated his call for the two pieces of legislation to be considered “in tandem.”
