Budget

HHS is asking Congress for the authority to spend $535 million on the health insurance marketplaces as part of a $2.1 billion fiscal 2017 budget for the exchanges that aims to bring in $1.6 billion in user fees from insurers.

The White House fiscal 2017 budget continues the administration's push for Medicaid expansion with an expected proposal to offer three years of full federal funding for newly eligible beneficiaries to states who have not yet expanded, addresses the substance abuse crisis, extends funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program through fiscal 2019, and includes an unexpected proposal to let states and the federal government jointly negotiate to lower the price of Medicaid drugs.

With a request of $5.1 billion for FDA, President Barack Obama's fiscal year 2017 budget proposal seeks a $358 billion funding bump for FDA with a focus on medical product safety, food safety, the vice president's cancer “moonshot” initiative and precision medicine.

The Senate health committee on Tuesday (Feb. 9) will hold the first installment of a long-awaited markup of its counterpart to the House-passed Cures legislation, with the committee's lineup including a revised draft of legislation to improve electronic health records, as well as bipartisan bills to streamline FDA's reviews of innovate medical devices, bolster FDA's oversight of reused devices, accelerate the approval process of genetically targeted drugs, identify and remove barriers faced by the next generation of researchers within the National Institutes of Health, among other issues.

A group of eight senators, including Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (VT), is asking President Barack Obama to include provisions to lower prescription drug costs in his upcoming fiscal 2017 budget, and point to Medicare drug price negotiations as one policy solution that could help bring down those costs.

The White House Press Secretary, speaking at the daily press briefing on Monday (Feb. 1), reiterated the commitment by President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden to break down barriers that block data sharing among researchers as part of the administration's “Moonshot” initiative to cure cancer.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Republican lawmakers about increasing funds for the National Institutes of Health and getting bipartisan NIH and FDA reforms through the Senate and into law the same day President Barack Obama unveiled a new White House mission to cure cancer in his last State of the Union Address.

The chairman of the Senate health committee is hopeful the upper chamber's counterpart to the House-passed 21st Century Cures bill will be the next agenda item for the committee.

Medical imaging stakeholders Thursday praised Congress for including in the massive spending bill language to block implementation of United States Preventive Service Task Force's (USPSTF) recommended grades for breast cancer screenings.