Details of the Trump administration’s proposed budget for health and biomedical science appeared to be published early today. If accurate, the document confirms that the White House favors significant cuts to programs and agencies such as Medicaid and the National Institutes of Health.
Americans first got a preview of these intentions in March, when the Office of Management and Budget published a “skinny” budget that provided a broader outline of what the White House wanted.
Though the White House’s final budget was not due to be published until later, the Department of Health and Human Services appeared to accidentally publish figures specific to its own department on its website earlier today. The document later disappeared from the Health and Human Services site.
So this from #HHS: The only official version of the HHS budget will be released by the Office of Management and Budget at 11:00AM tomorrow. https://t.co/CAhOoC8GOs
— DonnaYoungDC (@DonnaYoungDC) May 22, 2017
Media outlets were able to save the leaked report. STAT offers highlights:
- Medicaid would face a cut of $610 billion, on top of the $839 billion that would already be cut under the proposed Affordable Health Care Act that passed in the House earlier this month.
- The National Institutes of Health would get $26 billion, an 18 percent reduction in funding. …
- The FDA would be funded with an increase of $1.3 billion in user fees, paid by drug and device makers seeking approval for their products. That would be counter-balanced by a $854 million reduction in direct government funding.
Congress recently passed a spending agreement that will fund the government through the end of this fiscal year. The budget above is for fiscal year 2018. Congress must pass it before it’s enacted.
