Moderate Democrats Pitch Income Limits on New Medicare Benefits

Centrist Democrats are weighing whether new Medicare benefits should go only to lower-income Americans as they look for ways to cut the cost of their party’s sweeping domestic spending bill.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters he wants to means-test “everything we can” to reduce the size of the once-$3.5 trillion spending package being debated by congressional Democrats. Other centrists have said new Medicare benefits — vision, dental, and hearing coverage — specifically need to be limited by income.

“We have to have means-testing to bring it in,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said.

A dental hygienist cleans the gums of a patient at a CCI Health and Wellness Services health center in Silver Spring, Md., on April 18, 2017.

Photo: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Cuellar said he has been in talks ...