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On May 23, the Trump administration released his full 2018 budget proposal, which details many of the changes that may be made to the United States federal government’s spending. Outrage from politicians, mayors, outside parties, and citizens followed the release of these plans. According to the Washington Post, the Environmental Protection Agency, the State Department and the Agriculture Department took the hardest hits. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lost 18% of its funding. What does this mean for us, health wise, going forward? What is the administration looking to specifically cut? Although the Department of Health and Human services is allegedly one of the largest and most sprawling departments within the government, the administration hopes to cut the department’s budget by approximately $15.1 billion. The cuts excludes funding for the insurance provided by Medicare and Medicaid, two immense programs for older and lower-income Americans. These programs were by Americans known as “mandatory programs in federal budget parlance” because of the amount of people finally being able to receive insurance and benefits.
On the positive side, this proposed budget would aim to increase spending on substance-abuse services by around $500 million, hoping to help prevent and treat opioid addiction. It would also create an emergency fund to help respond to disease outbreaks in the country. But according to the New York Times, it (the budget) “does not specify how much money the fund would receive or whether the money would be diverted from other parts of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention”. Amy Goldstein, The Washington Post’s national health-care policy writer, also added that this budget would abolish the Fogarty International Center. This major program is a $69.1 million program dedicated to building partnerships between health research institutions in the United States and other countries. These partnerships combine intelligence of many doctors and specialists to help the ill. This budget has struck the the medical and science community with a call for massive cuts in spending on scientific research and medical research. The National Cancer Institute would receive a $1 billion cut compared to its 2017 budget. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute would see a $575 million cut. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases would see a reduction of $838 million.
The overall National Institutes of Health budget from $31.8 billion to $26 billion. Steven Houser, president of the American Heart Association, called Trump's budget “devastating” and “unconscionable.” Mary Woolley, president of the advocacy group Research!America noted that these cuts are aimed to increase spending to the military. “We all want a nation worth defending after all. A healthy and a prosperous nation. The president's budget would not get us there.”