Preventive Health Savings Act
The Preventive Health Savings Act would add a new scoring mechanism to the congressional budgeting process. Specifically, it would amend the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to let the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determine, upon request from leadership in the House and Senate, whether proposed legislation would produce net reductions in budget outlays in future budgetary outyears through preventive health care. If the Director finds potential net savings, the bill requires including a description and estimate of those reductions in projections, and allows the Director to extend projections to cover additional outyears. Importantly, these preventive-health savings estimates would be supplementary and could not be used to determine compliance with budget enforcement rules. The bill also defines key terms, including what counts as “budgetary outyears” and what constitutes “preventive health care,” grounding the concept in evidence-based measures. In short, the bill aims to encourage consideration of long-term savings from preventive health measures in budget projections, without altering the formal enforcement rules governing budget compliance.
Key Points
- 1Adds a new “Scoring of Preventive Health Savings” provision to the Congressional Budget Act, enabling the Director to assess whether proposed legislation would reduce outlays in future budgetary outyears through preventive health care.
- 2Requires that, upon request by leadership from both chambers’ Budget Committees and the committees of primary jurisdiction, the Director make a determination about potential net reductions in outlays.
- 3If net reductions are identified, the Director must include a description and estimate of these reductions in the legislation’s projections and may extend projections to include later outyears beyond standard timeframes.
- 4The preventive-health savings estimates are to be treated as supplementary and cannot be used to determine compliance with the Congressional Budget Act or other enforcement controls.
- 5Defines key terms: “budgetary outyears” means two consecutive 10-year periods starting 10 years after the current fiscal year; “preventive health care” covers actions aimed at promoting health and preventing disease, based on credible, publicly available evidence from various study types and models.