In their proposals to address the federal budget deficit, the President and the House of Representatives have advanced fundamentally different paths for the nation. Rising health care costs are at the heart of this debate.
In a new blog post, Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis analyzes the proposals, showing that while both approaches constrain federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid, they differ sharply in how steep the cuts would be, how they would be achieved, and what effect they would have. Davis outlines the health care provisions in each proposal and considers their impact on the availability of affordable, comprehensive coverage and the drivers of health care costs.