President Joe Biden is slated to use the State of the Union to announce sweeping actions to lower healthcare costs by extending certain healthcare provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act, including capping out-of-pocket prescription costs, to all Americans rather than solely Medicare patients.
“The President believes that healthcare is a right, not a privilege,” White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden told reporters on Wednesday. “We truly believe that our work on healthcare, the President’s work on healthcare, is a signature issue for us.”
Senior administration officials said that Biden will use his speech before the joint session of Congress on Thursday to call on the legislature to expand three key healthcare provisions of the IRA to all insurance plans via the next formal budget agreement.
“President Biden is calling on Congress to expand the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap to all private insurance so that all Americans have the peace of mind that comes with knowing that they won’t have to choose between filling their prescription or putting food on the table,” Tanden told reporters.
The out-of-pocket prescription cap written into the IRA for Medicare enrollees is slated to take effect in 2025. “What’s good for seniors, a $2,000 cap, is good for all Americans,” Tanden said.
Biden will additionally request that Congress incorporate into the budget requirements for drug manufacturers the same rebates on commercial drug sales that are currently mandated by the IRA when the price of a drug increases greater than the rate of inflation.
Also included in the president’s proposal will be a call to cap the commercial price of insulin to $35 per month, according to senior administration officials. The equivalent policy for Medicare patients on insulin went into effect in January 2023.
Tanden said that expanding access to health insurance is another one of Biden’s top healthcare priorities and that he will further ask Congress to make permanent the additional Obamacare tax credits that have been continued since they were enacted as part of COVID-19 relief efforts.
The additional tax credits, which are to expire in 2025, were meant to protect people with incomes above the cutoff for subsidies for insurance on Obamacare exchanges. They have reduced individual health insurance premiums by an average of $800 per year. In the last enrollment period, over 21 million people signed up for health insurance on Obamacare exchanges.
“Millions of Americans insurance premiums rise without congressional action,” said Tanden. “That’s why the President is calling on Congress to make the expanded ACA tax credits permanent and he will continue to reject any attempt for congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act.”
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The budget reconciliation process allows certain legislation to pass without being subject to the filibuster, meaning that the minority party has limited ability to stop it. Officials emphasized that the IRA itself passed without a single Republican vote.
“President Biden’s healthcare agenda is delivering for families across the country, said Tanden, “and all of this work helps save lives.”
