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Medicare Advantage plans will get 1.8% raise in 2019

One-third of seniors are in Medicare Advantage plans. Photo: Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

The federal government wants to increase payments to privately administered Medicare plans by an average of 1.84% in 2019. Final 2019 payment rates and policies for Part D drug coverage and Medicare Advantage insurance plans, which consume about $300 billion of taxpayer funds each year, will be announced April 2.

Go deeper: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today also unveiled several other policies that will cut rates to Medicare Advantage employer plans and change how companies calculate the health of their members.

Go deeper

Sarah Mucha
1 hour ago - Politics & Policy

House passes government funding, debt ceiling bill

Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The House passed a bill on Tuesday to fund the government through early December, along with a measure to raise the debt ceiling through December 2022.

Why it matters: The stopgap measure, which needs to be passed to avoid a government shutdown when funding expires on Sept. 30, faces a difficult journey in the Senate where at least ten Republicans would need to vote in favor.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow
Alayna Treene, author of Sneak Peek
2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

The Democrats' debt dilemma

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

Democrats find themselves in a political and potentially catastrophic economic quagmire as Republicans stand firm on denying them any help in raising the federal debt ceiling.

Why it matters: The Democrats are technically right — the debt comes, in part, from past spending by President Trump and his predecessors, not only President Biden's new big-ticket programs. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is saddling them with the public relations challenge of making that distinction during next year's crucial midterms.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow
Sarah Mucha, Hans Nichols
2 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Pelosi's endgame

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears at a news conference on Tuesday. Photo: Sarah Silbiger/Bloomberg via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) began her infrastructure endgame Tuesday, pressuring centrists to ultimately support as much social spending as possible while pleading with progressives to pass the roads-and-bridges package preceding it.

Why it matters: Neither group can achieve what it wants without the other, their ultimatums be damned. The leaders of both acknowledged the speaker's unique gift for pulling off a deal after separate conversations with Democratic leaders.

Go deeper (2 min. read)Arrow