NoHLA is working to lift up urgent health priorities in Congress considers spending priorities in its upcoming budget package.
Working from priorities President Biden outlined in the Build Back Better proposal, Congressional leaders are working to try to pass a major policy package through “reconciliation” – a budget process that requires only a simple majority vote in the Senate. Congressional leaders hope to pass the package alongside a bipartisan infrastructure package by December, but the process has stalled due to hold-out Senators Manchin (D-W. VA) and Sinema (D-AZ).
NoHLA and health advocates across the country have been calling on Congress to stand strong with a robust package that includes needed health priorities, such as:
- allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug savings,
- adding Medicare dental, vision, and hearing benefits for elders and people with disabilities,
- permanent premium affordability assistance for Exchange enrollees,
- addressing health equity by fixing the Medicaid coverage gap, investing in maternal health for communities of color, and removing immigration-related obstacles to care; and
- investments in home-and-community based long-term care.
Read more in a letter we sent to Congressional leadership with partners in the Health Care Is a Human Right coalition.
We’re also grateful to Washington State champions who have called for Congress to meet pressing health care needs. State Representative Eileen Cody (D-34th) and State Senator David Frockt (D-46th) authored an op-ed in the Seattle Times this week, highlighting the need for Congress to make relief for health coverage premiums permanent.
We will be watching as this once-in-a-decade opportunity unfolds — in the words of Washington Congressperson Dr. Kim Schrier, “We’re ready to get this done.”