Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell touted the administration’s 2016 budget as a “fiscally responsible proposal” that will save taxpayers an estimated $250 billion over the next 10 years.
Burwell, discussing the $4-trillion budget on Monday, praised the blueprint for working to “provide Americans with the building blocks of healthy, productive lives” and to reduce cost growth in Medicare.
{mosads}The secretary highlighted a series of proposals designed to fight prescription drug abuse, establish new healthcare clinics, increase the healthcare workforce and reduce waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare.
“Taken together, the president’s budget request for HHS makes investments that impact millions of Americans for the better — investments that are good for the health of our families, the American middle class and our nation’s economy,” Burwell told reporters at a press conference.
The budget proposal would also repeal the sustainable growth rate, a formula responsible for Medicare’s flawed physician payment system, and replace it with reforms outlined by bipartisan legislation in the last Congress, among other reforms.
In total, Obama’s budget blueprint would spend nearly $4 trillion, exceeding the spending limits introduced under the 2011 budget deal. Officials estimate the budget would cut deficits by $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years.
Read more about the proposal — which includes tax increases on the wealthy and increased spending on infrastructure — here.