Strategies the president and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar advocate to curb the rising price of prescription drugs are part of the budget. Under the new arrangement, states would gain far more freedom to set their own rules about how to cover the poor. Federal health officials have quietly been exploring the controversial proposal to give individual states permission to convert their Medicaid programs to block grants or a system of caps, without any change in law. The changes are expected to encounter fierce resistance from industry lobbying groups, and members of Congress traditionally nervous about backing cuts to health-care programs. Charles N. “Chip” Kahn III, president of the Federation of American Hospitals, which represents more than 1,000 for-profit hospitals and health systems, said the budget “imposes arbitrary and blunt Medicare cuts.

Source: Washington Post March 11, 2019 16:06 UTC