Washington, D.C.–U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho),
Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, delivered the following
remarks at a hearing entitled, “The President’s Fiscal Year 2023 Health and
Human Services Budget.”
The text of Ranking Member
Crapo’s remarks, as prepared, is below.
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Secretary Becerra,
for being here today.
“Our federal health care programs face a range of pressing
challenges, which demand serious solutions. Today’s hearing provides a
crucial opportunity to highlight both shared priorities and concerns with
respect to the proposals put forth by the President.
“As part of the Cancer Moonshot initiative, the
Administration has rightly acknowledged the value of multicancer early
detection tests, which have the potential to boost the cancer survival rate
while driving down costs. Earlier this Congress, I reintroduced
bipartisan legislation to ensure Medicare coverage for these screening tools,
and I look forward to working with you, Secretary Becerra, to move this bill
across the finish line. The budget proposal’s focus on mental health also
offers potential for common ground.
“Unfortunately, other aspects of the Budget Request raise
substantial questions. It is imperative that we work now to keep Medicare
strong, not only for current enrollees, but also for future generations.
The Medicare Trustees have repeatedly cautioned that the program’s financial shortfalls
will require legislative action, with the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund
projected to reach insolvency in 2026.
“We have yet to receive this year’s Trustees Report, but the
President’s Budget includes no proposals to shore up the Trust Fund’s solvency.
In fact, the document contains virtually no sources of Medicare savings at all,
instead opting for a long list of coverage expansions, often with no cost
estimates.
“Proposing dozens of new spending policies with no sense of
their budgetary effects risks deepening the deficit and exacerbating
inflation. A similar pattern persists for the Budget Request’s Medicaid
provisions, which would add billions in new spending without any meaningful
cost-saving reforms.
“Compounding these onerous impacts, the budget includes a
placeholder for a reckless tax-and-spending package, presumably the nearly $5
trillion, House-passed Build Back Better Act, that was defeated on a bipartisan
basis last year, and rejected across this country. The government price
controls, Obamacare subsidy hikes and other misguided policies included in that
bill would intensify the hardships many Americans currently face.
“Under the package’s price controls, we would inevitably see
fewer cutting-edge treatments and cures, higher launch prices for new drugs and
a drastic decline in innovative R&D, handing the Chinese Communist Party a
competitive edge. Long-term Obamacare subsidy expansions, meanwhile,
would double down on skyrocketing federal spending and force taxpayers to fund
coverage for Americans with six-figure salaries.
“These policies would worsen the economic outlook for
working families. By continuing to push forward this problematic agenda,
the proposed budget has missed a key opportunity to address urgent issues and
needs.
“As states and health care providers across the country look
to budget for the year ahead, uncertainty abounds. The complex layers of
flexibilities and coverage mandates tied to the public health emergency
necessitate clear and comprehensive communication and accounting, particularly
as stakeholders attempt to map out the path to post-pandemic normalcy.
Without greater transparency, both for Congress and for the nation, this
process could prove unpredictable and needlessly costly.
“Coverage dynamics, for instance, will likely be volatile at
the end of the public health emergency, yet this budget provides no plan for
transitions in care.
“Last year’s $1.9 trillion partisan spending bill suffered
from poor planning and prioritization, with only around one percent of the
package’s funding directed to vaccines and therapeutics.
“This year’s Budget Request provided a chance to chart a
more thoughtful return to normalcy, continuity and fiscal responsibility.
Disappointingly, the document does not rise to that occasion.
“Secretary Becerra, I look forward to engaging with you on
these and other issues in the months ahead, particularly with respect to
telehealth, which continues to enjoy broad bipartisan support.
“Thank
you again for being here today, and thank you, Mr. Chairman.”