The giant Senate budget deal includes some huge changes for Americans' health care

Lydia Ramsey

  • The Senate has introduced a bill aimed to fix the US government's cycle of short-term funding bills that put the country in jeopardy of a shutdown.

  • The bill includes funding for the National Institutes of Health, the opioid crisis, among other health initiatives, totaling almost $20 billion.

  • The plan still needs to pass the Senate and the House, which has already expressed some hesitations.

Senate leaders unveiled a bipartisan budget deal on Wednesday that would introduce significant funding and changes for health care initiatives and agencies.

"After months of legislative logjams, this budget deal is a genuine breakthrough," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Wednesday.

The Senate and House are set to vote on the deal Thursday. Many House members have already expressed concerns about the plan, which could threaten its passage.

More on lawmakers' concerns over the bipartisan deal

Some of its health care-related initiatives include:

  • An additional $2 billion for the National Institutes of Health.

  • $6 billion over the next two years to combat the opioid crisis, a big increase from the funding set aside by naming the crisis a "public health emergency."

  • $4 billion for VA hospital and clinic improvements.

  • A two-year reauthorization of community health centers, with $7 billion in total funding. That would help reinstate the funding the centers — which serve more than 25 million Americans — lost when a key fund expired in September 2017.

  • $495 million for National Health Service Corps, an organization within the Department of Health and Human Service that helps medical professionals pay for their medical education.

  • $363 million for Teaching Health Centers

The bill also includes a few changes to the health care system.

  • It would close the donut hole in Medicare, an aspect of Medicare's prescription drug coverage that left seniors on the hook for a certain amount of prescription drug costs before hitting a yearly limit.

  • It would extend the Children's Health Insurance Program for 10 years. The latest stopgap bill only extended the program for 6 years.

  • It would repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board for Medicare. While the board was set up in 2010 as part of the Affordable Care Act, it has not been used. The idea was to help slow down Medicare spending.

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