House Education & Workforce Committee Issues Testimony From HHS Secretary Becerra
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Chair Foxx and Ranking Member Scott, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the President's Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Budget for the
When
Until now, Americans paying far too much for prescription drugs haven't had any relief. We changed that. The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by
In three years, the
There are many, many more accomplishments that I could highlight - but, there is more work to be done. It is critical that we look forward to the challenges that lie ahead and take the actions that will ensure that we can continue to improve the health and wellbeing of all Americans.
This budget lays out a vision for a nation that fosters innovation, invests in health, and supports its most vulnerable.
HHS remains at the center of some of the most important issues for American families - including expanding access to care and lowering health care costs; protecting and strengthening Medicare, Medicaid, and the Marketplace; helping ensure access to reproductive health care; improving maternal health care; transforming the way we deliver behavioral health care, particularly for substance use disorders; improving care for older adults and people with disabilities; preparing for future public health threats; ending cancer as we know it; and ensuring access to high-quality education and support for children.
We also must continue to advance cutting-edge research, and meet the health needs of Tribal Nations and Native communities. And none of this would be possible without the resources to support our operations.
All told, the FY 2025 budget proposes
Expanding Coverage and Lowering Health Care Costs
Once again, a record-breaking number of Americans enrolled in the
The FY 2025 budget continues to build on this success by making permanent the expanded premium tax credits that the Inflation Reduction Act extended and providing Medicaid-like coverage to low-income individuals in states that have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, along with financial incentives to ensure states maintain their existing expansions. For Medicaid and CHIP, the Budget allows states to extend the existing 12-month continuous eligibility for all children to 36 months, and allows states to provide continuous eligibility for children from birth until they turn age 6. Further, the budget prohibits enrollment fees and premiums in CHIP. It extends consumer surprise billing protections to ground ambulances, building on the No Surprises Act. The budget also advances the steps taken in the Inflation Reduction Act to improve access to affordable prescription drugs by further expanding Medicare's ability to negotiate prices directly with drug manufacturers, and expanding inflation rebates and the
Fundamental to our vision of affordable, accessible health care is ensuring Americans can rely on Medicare for generations to come. The FY 2025 budget proposes changes that indefinitely extends the solvency of the
In addition, the budget continues on the path to doubling Health Center Program funding, which provides health care services to millions of Americans, particularly those in underserved communities. The budget provides
Transforming Behavioral Health
The FY 2025 budget proposes over
The budget seeks to expand access to high-quality mental health care, including through a
The budget also addresses the sobering impact of the behavioral health crisis on our nation's youth. National surveys of youth have shown significant increases in certain mental health symptoms, including depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation, compounded by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The surveys underscore the urgency and importance of our commitment to equip our youth with the tools they desperately need to address these unique challenges. The budget expands mental health services in schools and bolsters youth mental health programs by investing an additional
In addition, the budget increases funding to states for overdose prevention and substance use disorders treatment. In
The FY 2025 budget also continues to invest in growing and diversifying the behavioral health workforce. The budget includes
Improving the Well-being of Children, Families, and Older Adults
The FY 2025 budget invests in the future of our nation's children through high-quality early childhood education. The budget proposes to guarantee affordable child care to low- and middle-income working families from birth until kindergarten and offer preschool to all four-year-olds, making early care and education programs affordable and available where families live and work, and increasing wages for early childhood education workers. Under this proposal, preschool would be free and the average family would pay no more than
The budget continues to bolster
The budget also invests in child welfare, with a package totaling
Finally, we are also investing in supports for older adults and people with disabilities to ensure they can participate fully in our communities. The FY 2025 budget provides
Enhancing Long-term Care in All Settings
HHS programs support the health and well-being of people with disabilities and older adults. The FY 2025 budget includes a 10-year,
Strengthening Maternal Health Outcomes and
The budget reflects the Administration's commitment to address the
To help improve maternal health coverage and prioritize person-centered care, the budget also includes an optional Medicaid benefit that expands coverage of maternal health support services across the prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum periods, with enhanced federal funding available for the first five years in which states take up the State Medicaid option. This includes coverage for a range of maternal health support workers, including doulas. With this benefit, we aim to bolster maternal health supports throughout the entire continuum of care and to demonstrate our dedication to supporting women at every stage of pregnancy and beyond.
Access to reproductive health care, including contraception, is a more urgent issue now than it has been in decades. The budget provides
Preparing for Future Public Health Threats
While this Administration has made tremendous strides in preparedness capabilities since the pandemic, there are many public health threats beyond COVID-19. The budget therefore includes over
This includes
Our nation continues to face emerging public health threats and it is important that we are well positioned to adequately respond. The budget continues to strengthen our domestic supply chain by investing
As a continuation of our work to treat and prevent infectious diseases, the budget also includes a new HHS-wide proposal to eliminate hepatitis C infections in
Advancing Health in Indian Country
HHS remains committed to addressing the significant health disparities faced by Tribal Nations and Native communities, and the chronic underinvestment in the
Beginning in FY 2026, the budget proposes full mandatory funding for all IHS accounts, and automatically grows funding each year to account for factors like inflation and pay. This approach will address chronic underinvestment by ensuring funding grows along with IHS's needs. The budget also includes a dedicated funding stream for public health capacity and infrastructure needs in Indian Country, a key lesson learned from the pandemic.
This budget also addresses health care workforce needs across the
The Department will continue to partner with Tribes and
Advancing Science to
Cancer impacts Americans of all ages and from all walks of life. Decreasing the cancer death rate and the number of loved ones we lose to the disease remains a top priority for the Administration. The Biden Cancer Moonshot set ambitious goals to cut the cancer death rate by 50 percent over 25 years, preventing more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047, and to improve the experience of people touched by cancer. The FY 2025 budget invests
Additionally, ARPA-H will maintain its role as a catalyst for transformation in the health ecosystem-- including through its recently-announced Sprint for
The budget continues the Administration's commitment to support scientific innovation. It includes
To keep our nation at the forefront of scientific innovation, we must seize the promise of artificial intelligence--while also managing its risks.
The FY 2025 budget also invests in scientific research that has resulted in significant improvements to American lives.
Supporting Program Operations and Mission-Critical Infrastructure
HHS needs sufficient operational funding to fulfill our mission. This includes resources to allow the
A fundamental component of HHS's infrastructure is its cybersecurity capabilities. We have seen a dramatic rise in large data breaches reported to HHS, and the health care information HHS protects is a prime target for cybercriminals. Our plan sets the direction for cybersecurity in health care, both from a policy and operational lens, and commits HHS to pursuing new priorities to both strengthen and support the sector at this critical time. The FY 2025 budget prioritizes investments to address cybersecurity threats and invests
The budget also invests in civil rights enforcement to ensure we do our part to protect the American people's fundamental rights of nondiscrimination and health information privacy. The budget provides the
HHS also invests in program integrity and promoting competition to support our commitment to good stewardship of taxpayer dollars. Our responsibility is to ensure that every dollar entrusted to us directly enhances the lives of the American people. The budget invests a total of
Improving the Customer Experience for the American Public
Lastly, I wanted to talk about how we are making government and government programs easier for American people to access and use. HHS is improving customer experience throughout the Department, mostly using current administrative funds. In FY 2025, the budget includes an
Conclusion
I am honored to lead the
I want to thank the Committee for inviting me to discuss the President's FY 2025 Budget for HHS. I look forward to working with you to fulfill that vision. Thank you for your partnership in advancing our shared goal to improve the health, safety, and well-being of our nation.
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Original text here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/becerra_testimony.pdf
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