The Congressional Budget Office periodically issues a compendium of policy options for changing federal tax and spending policies in particular areas and reducing federal spending. For each option the CBO presents an estimate of its effect on the budget without making recommendations either in favor of or against those options. The latest update of options includes a number with potential implications for health care providers, including:
- changing the cost-sharing rules for Medicare and restricting medigap insurance
- reducing Medicare Advantage benchmarks
- reducing Medicare’s coverage of bad debt
- consolidating and reducing federal payments for graduate medical education at teaching hospitals
- establishing caps on federal spending for Medicaid
- limiting state taxes on health care providers
- reducing federal Medicaid matching rates
Most of these options would have a damaging effect on community safety-net hospitals, which are more dependent on government payments – Medicare and Medicaid – than the typical hospital and therefore would suffer more financially from such policy changes.
Learn more about the CBO’s approach to identifying cost-cutting options and find other options from the agency’s “Options for Reducing the Deficit, 2023 to 2032” – volume one and volume two.
