Groups plead for more health funding as Chairman warns about cuts to proposed HHS budget

The Hill: House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., said Wednesday that groups pressing for $14 billion more in funding for education, health and labor programs will likely be disappointed because the budget proposed by President Barack Obama already faces cuts of about $3.5 billion in those areas.

"Obey made it clear that he thought many of the requests for additional funding for health services and educational programs should be funded on their merits. But he also insisted it would not be possible, given the political climate. ... The administration's requested health, labor and education appropriations bill totals $153 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The $3.5 billion cut would represent a 2.3 percent reduction." Groups at a subcommittee hearing on the bills are pressing for more money and said they wouldn't abandon their fight for the increase (Pecquet, 5/12).

CongressDaily: "Funding for the National Institutes of Health was the focus of several organizations, including the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, which both asked for an increase of approximately $3 billion over the president's FY11 request, from $32 billion to $35 billion." Other groups requested similar amounts. The American Diabetes Association asked for $80 million for the National Diabetes Prevention Program, which they say could save up to $190 billion over 10 years if fully implemented. 

"The American Academy of Family Physicians also requested specific funding for programs, seeking $170 million for a primary care training program authorized, sums as necessary, in the healthcare overhaul law, and $414 million for the National Health Service Corps, a loan repayment program for medical professionals who work in underserved areas. The healthcare law granted the HHS secretary $290 million for the corps" (McCarthy, 5/13).

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This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.