As expected, President Obama April 10 proposed a fiscal 2014 budget plan that would trim about $400 billion from federal health care spending, the vast majority coming from Medicare.

The biggest spending cut would come from allowing Medicare to benefit from the same rebates that Medicaid receives for brand-name and generic drugs provided to low-income beneficiaries under Medicare's prescription drug program. That would save about $123 billion over 10 years.

The budget also proposes to save $50 billion over 10 years by making higher income beneficiaries pay more for their Part B and Part D coverage beginning in 2017.

The budget also would cancel sequestration, across-the-board spending cuts to federal programs called for in the Balanced Budget Act of 2011. Under the law, Medicare provider spending is being reduced 2 percent annually