Home Health & Hospice Week

Package spending increase ‘insufficient,’ rep says.

The deal to suspend the $31.4 trillion debt ceiling doesn’t have any blockbuster healthcare provisions, but it does have one that will take back money related to COVID.

On May 31 the House passed the legislation 314-117, and at press time the Senate was expected to do the same before the weekend so that President Biden could sign it into law by Monday. The bill would suspend the debt ceiling until January 2025, after the next presidential election.

“The bill would rescind unobligated COVID-19 funds which is estimated to be about $28 billion from more than 120 accounts — including the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” notes McGuireWoods Consulting in a summary of the package. “The deal would retain about $5 billion in funding to accelerate the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, and vaccines for the uninsured,” it adds.

For perspective, “Congress has approved roughly $4.6 trillion in COVID-19 funding since 2020,” McGuireWoods points out.

The deal restricts FY 2025 spending to 1 percent above FY 2024, “an amount sure to be insufficient for programs that rise at least at the rate of inflation — if not faster,” notes trade group LeadingAge in a release.