The Headlines
- The FY 2021 budget cycle will begin in February.
- The Supreme Court will not expedite review of the Affordable Care Act.
- Surprise billing legislation may see action in the coming months.
- Early voting begins February 13, 2020.
The Details
1. FY 2021 budget cycle begins soon
The White House earlier this month announced that it will release its proposed FY 2021 budget on February 10. The president's budget request is expected to conform to spending levels set by last year’s deal to raise the Budget Control Act’s discretionary spending caps for two years. Specifically, defense and non-defense discretionary programs would each have roughly $5 billion more in available funding than current levels.
2. Supreme Court on the ACA
On January 21, the Supreme Court said it will not expedite its decision whether to review a Texas appeals court decision that held the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate unconstitutional. Twenty states, including North Carolina, and the District of Columbia had petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision this term.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last month ruled the ACA's individual mandate unconstitutional and sent the case back to the district court in Texas for the judge to take a "careful, granular approach" to determining which of the law's provisions could survive without the mandate. The high court could still decide later this spring to weigh the lawsuit as soon as this fall.
3. Surprise billing legislation
In December, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) released a compromise surprise billing deal that aims to protect patients from surprise billing and establish a federal benchmark payment with an option to go to arbitration for disputes over $750. The House Ways and Means Committee quickly followed with its own new agreement to address surprise bills, although in neither case was legislative text made available for review. No action was taken on either proposal.
The Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee are reportedly now drafting legislative text from the one-page summary. Duke Health Government Relations will continue monitoring and reporting updates in future newsletters.
4. Early voting opens next month
North Carolina's statewide primary Election Day is Tuesday, March 3, 2020. The primary ballot will include contested party races for President, U.S. Senate, congressional seats, Governor, Council of State, state legislative positions, and county board membership. The North Carolina State Board of Elections has posted sample ballots for all elections online, and absentee ballots are now available.
February 7 is the deadline for voter registration for the primary election. After that, eligible voters who have never registered in North Carolina or have moved since the last election can only register during the early voting, which will run February 13-29. More information about one-stop voting is available here. Voters will not be required to show photo ID to vote in this year’s primary election.