Senate passes infrastructure bill that includes $65B for broadband
Bill heads to House where Democrats want to pass a $3.5 trillion plan for "social infrastructure," including healthcare priorities.
Photo: Michael Duva/Getty Images
The U.S. Senate passed a $550 billion bipartisan infrastructure bill aimed at shoring up the nation's roads and bridges, as well as protecting vulnerable communities from wildfires and expanding broadband internet access.
The bill will now move to the House of Representatives, where Democratic lawmakers are planning to pair it with a $3.5 trillion bill that can be passed through reconciliation, requiring a simple majority of votes.
The reconciliation bill will cover what Democrats are referring to as "social infrastructure," including healthcare priorities. However, all Democrats will have to band together in order to pass the massive bill, which is anything from certain.
The sprawling package, part of President Biden's "Build Back Better" pledge, has already received hefty criticism from Republican opponents who deem it wasteful.
The passage of the infrastructure bill included the REFUND Act and a three-year delay of the pharma-backed Rebate Rule, which was lauded by Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP).
The organization said lawmakers should build on the "unprecedented momentum for action" by advancing additional solutions to lower drug prices, including a permanent repeal of the Rebate Rule.
WHY THIS MATTERS
The $65 billion for broadband infrastructure included in the bill now heading to the House could already prove beneficial to the healthcare system by giving Americans in rural areas better access to faster internet connections with speeds the Federal Communications Commission deems required to work and study online – 25 megabits per second downloads and 3 mbps uploads.
As healthcare moves toward more virtual service offerings that include video consultations and the uploading of data collected from wearable devices, reliable, high-speed broadband connections are critical.
THE LARGER TREND
The White House initially envisioned a much larger, $2.2 trillion bill that included funds for expanding access to home-based or community-based care and improving the wages of caregivers. The original bill would have also boosted home healthcare worker wages from $12 an hour and paved the way for home healthcare workers to unionize.
ON THE RECORD
"The REFUND Act will enable patients and taxpayers to recoup dollars paid to drug makers for medications that are wasted when drug companies package their products in excessively large, single-use drug vials that contain more medicine than is needed by most patients," said CSRxP Executive Director Lauren Aronson. "We applaud senators, on both sides of the aisle, for recognizing the value of this solution which garnered substantial bipartisan support in the last Congress."
Twitter: @dropdeaded209
Email the writer: nathaneddy@gmail.com
