Bush Budget Would Cut Funding for ‘Variety’ of Safety Net Programs

As more details about President Bush's $1.9 trillion FY 2002 budget are released, HHS budget documents show that the President will "propose deep cuts" in a number of health programs designed to help the uninsured, the New York Times reports. Funding for many programs providing "health care access for the uninsured" would drop a total of 86%, to $20 million, down from $140 million this fiscal year. The programs received $40 million in 2000 (Pear, New York Times, 4/4). Also Bush will propose cuts for rural health, disease prevention, child care, mental health and minority health initiatives (Meckler, AP/Nando Times, 4/3). A White House spokesperson said yesterday that Bush plans to "phase out" the Community Access Program, an initiative that helps communities to "link up" with hospitals and clinics for those lacking health coverage, the Times reports. The spokesperson added, "Creating new federal grants is not the best way to address health care access. It's an efficacy issue." Administration officials also said that Bush's budget recommends a $124 million, or 10.6%, increase in funding for community health centers.
Although the White House has not disclosed many details in Bush's budget, which includes a 10-year, $1.6 trillion tax cut, yesterday provided the "second example of significant cuts" in health programs, including cuts in some programs for children and children's hospitals. White House officials said that HHS would receive a 5%, or $2.7 billion, boost next year, raising the department's budget to $55.5 billion -- but "all of the net increase goes to the NIH for support of biomedical research, not for the direct care of patients," the Times reports.

Other Cuts
Budget documents show Bush would cut federal spending for training doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists and other health professionals from $353 million this year to $259 million next year. However, Bush administration officials said that since the documents were prepared, they had decided to "make even deeper cuts," providing only $140 million for training health professionals, a 60% dip in funding from this year. White House officials "defend[ed]" the proposal, citing an "oversupply" of doctors, but opponents said that the program also funds training for nurses, "who are in short supply," as well as family practitioners, internists and other doctors who "work in underserved areas." In addition, Bush's budget would provide no additional funding for the Ryan White CARE Act, which received $1.8 billion this year, offering "no allowance" for inflation in the cost of medical care and "expensive" drugs used to "combat" HIV/AIDS.

Responding to Critics
After releasing the numbers, the Bush administration "scrambled to respond to its critics" (New York Times, 4/4). Defending the Bush budget package, HHS spokesperson Campbell Gardett said that many spending cuts targeted "one-time projects, items not requested by HHS or projects earmarked" by lawmakers, adding, "The popular word for it is pork." He called last year's spending increases "too high," adding that the "15% growth represented what we would call a fiscal holiday, and it was not sustainable" (AP/Nando Times, 4/4).