Americans fear rising health care costs – The Hill

Opinion>Healthcare

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Trump is Making Health Care Unaffordable Again 

by Glenn C. Altschuler, opinion contributor   – 11/30/25 8:00 AM E

Mandel Ngan, Agence France-Presse via Getty Images President Trump speaks to the press upon arrival at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., on June 20, 2025.

As 2025 winds down amid concerns about “affordability,” Americans have added incentives to wish family, friends and themselves a “healthy New Year.” An AP-NORC poll reports that 60 percent of respondents are “extremely” or “very” worried about health care cost increases. 

Substantial cuts to Medicaid in the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill and a refusal by Republicans to renew Affordable Care Act tax credit subsidies will bring the total of uninsured Americans to about 31 million by 2027. Tens of millions more will experience sticker shock when they get their health insurance bills from the ACA, Medicaid, Medicare and private companies. 

Over the next decade, federal government spending on Medicaid, which serves 72 million Americans, accounting for 20 percent of expenditures on health care in the United States and 50 percent of long-term care, will go down by $911 billion. 

An estimated 7.5 million people, residing in every state and congressional district, will no longer be covered. The most likely casualties of work requirements and recertification of eligibility are low-income workers who frequently change jobs, their children, and young adults who often move and may not receive required forms every six months. 

Monitoring the new rules, which are already in place in some states, is expensive. According to the General Accounting Office, Georgia has already spent $54 million on administration this year, twice as much as it paid for actual patient care. Since Medicaid reimbursement rates are lower than those for Medicare, moreover, additional cuts may convince more providers to stop treating Medicaid patients. 

Meanwhile, Medicare announced that in 2026 its Standard Part B Premium, which covers physician and outpatient visits, will be $202.90 per month, a 9.7 percent increase. The annual Part B deductible will go up to $283. It’s worth noting that 7 million Medicare beneficiaries  spend 10 percent or more of their annual income on Part B premiums, not including dental and long-term care. 

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GAO, Library of Congress avoid cuts in Legislative Branch bill – Roll Call

An Architect of the Capitol worker picks up trash on the Capitol steps on May 22. (Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call)

Congress

GAO, Library of Congress avoid cuts in Legislative Branch bill

Both agencies faced steep cuts in an earlier House version

By Justin Papp, Posted November 10, 2025 at 6:11am

Senate appropriators Sunday unveiled a roughly $7.3 billion draft fiscal 2026 Legislative Branch appropriations bill, part of a three-bill package that could be paired with a stopgap spending measure in a bid to reopen the government.

The bill would maintain funding for both the Government Accountability Office and the Library of Congress, two legislative branch agencies that faced steep cuts in an earlier House version of the proposal.

It would also boost Capitol Police funding to $852.4 million for fiscal 2026, an increase of roughly $46 million over the current fiscal year, as concerns over member security remain elevated. The proposal would be a more than 7 percent increase in total legislative branch funding over the current fiscal year

Not included is language barring the GAO from suing for the release of “impounded” funds without congressional approval, a sticking point in negotiations to advance the package of bills that includes the Military Construction-VA and Agriculture spending proposals.

The language restricting GAO’s authorities appeared in the version that advanced out of the House Appropriations Committee in June, as Republicans were ramping up attacks against the nonpartisan watchdog, which had found that the Trump White House illegally barred the release of appropriated funds.

The proposed restriction on the GAO language was paired with a nearly 50 percent proposed cut to the GAO’s budget that Democrats viewed as an attack on the legislative branch agency.

“It is astonishing that for all the talk about finding and rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, that House Republicans would defund the watchdog that is tasked with precisely that role,” said House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., at the time.

A Senate version of the bill that advanced out of committee in July and passed on the floor in August would reinstate the GAO’s funding, keeping it flat at $811.9 million for fiscal 2026. But the language over the GAO’s ability to sue the executive branch over “impoundment” — the withholding of appropriated funds from being obligated for purposes intended by Congress — continued to be debated late into this week.

Presidents can cancel funds with congressional approval, as the Trump administration did earlier this year with a $9 billion package to rescind funds for foreign aid and public broadcasting, but the 1974 Congressional Budget Act prohibits the executive branch from doing so unilaterally.

But the Trump administration has also found ways to circumvent the rules in other instances, including with temporary “holds” on targeted accounts. Democrats and some GOP appropriators have pushed back on such maneuvers, arguing it undermines Congress’ “power of the purse” as laid out in the Constitution.

The comptroller general, who leads the GAO, can sue in federal court under the 1974 law for the release of appropriations that have been illegally impounded.

Security boost, Library of Congress remains flat

In addition to the overall increase to the Capitol Police budget, Republican and Democratic appropriators touted $203.5 million in funding dedicated to enhancing security.

Threats against members and staff have been elevated since the first Trump administration, according to Capitol Police figures. But the assassination of Minnesota state lawmaker Melissa Hortman in June and of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in September have raised concerns across Capitol Hill.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: GAO, Library of Congress avoid cuts in Legislative Branch bill – Roll Call

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