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On March 20, House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled the House Republican’s FY 2013 Budget Resolution, titled "The Path to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal." Similar to last year’s budget framework, House Republicans estimate the FY13 budget resolution will reduce overall spending by $5 trillion compared to President Obama’s budget. The focal points of the "Path to Prosperity" are changes to the Medicare and Medicaid programs, tax reforms and reduced federal spending.
Medicare Proposals: The plan calls for the immediate repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and seeks to implement changes from the Wyden-Ryan plan. Specifically, the budget resolution proposes a premium support model that moves Medicare into competition with private plans. The budget also proposes that beginning in 2023, the eligibility age of 65 years old for Medicare recipients would increase by 2 months each year until it reached age 67 in 2034.
Medicaid Proposals: The proposal would convert Medicaid into a state block grant program indexed for inflation and population growth. States would be permitted to modify the program by removing federal program benefit requirements and enrollment eligibility rules. The House Republican’s plan estimates that this portion of the budget resolution would save $770 over ten years.
Other Health Care: The plan calls for the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) and the passage of medical liability reforms.
The proposed budget resolution also includes cuts to federal non-defense spending, the elimination of many tax loopholes, and changes to both personal income and corporate tax rates.
This year’s resolution also attempts to eliminate the across-the-board defense cuts scheduled to begin in Fiscal Year 2013 per the Budget Control Act. The resolution does not seek to eliminate the across-the-board Medicare spending cuts capped at 2 percent. These cuts are expected to reduce physician payments by $13.49 billion spread out over 9 years.
This budget resolution framework is not a piece of legislation that appropriates money nor does it require a Presidential signature. Instead, would be a framework for other committees to use when determining levels of spending within their jurisdictions. The framework is intended as a guidepost for the total amount of spending over the next decade. Absent agreement with a competing Senate budget resolution, not yet proposed, the document is not binding on Congress.
Read the House Budget Committee’s “Pathway to Prosperity: A Blueprint for American Renewal.”
Read the Congressional Budget Office analysis of Rep. Ryan’s budget plan.
View the Pathway to Prosperity’s “the Simple Truth on Medicare’s Future” chart.
Read the White House response.
