White House Budget Would Cut HHS Funding By 12.5%, Move 340B To CMS
The proposed budget includes cuts to several other agencies, including a $5 billion cut for the National Institutes of Health, which Stat reports Congress is unlikely to support.
Modern Healthcare:
Trump Budget Request Seeks HHS Cuts, Moves 340B Program Under CMS
The White House is redoubling its efforts to overhaul the Health and Human Services Department and cut its funding by 12.5%, according to an outline for its fiscal 2027 budget proposal issued Friday. President Donald Trump is seeking to reduce HHS funding and revive last year’s efforts to reorganize the department, chiefly by moving the 340B Drug Pricing Program under the purview of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The administration also wants to establish a new agency that would oversee health priorities currently managed by multiple agencies. (Early, 4/3)
Stat:
NIH Would Get $5 Billion Cut Under Trump’s 2027 Budget, But Congress Unlikely To Go Along
Sen. Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine who chairs the appropriations committee, called the funding cuts to biomedical research “unwarranted” in a statement responding to the president’s proposed budget. ... In January, Congress offered a near total refutation of the administration’s plan, slightly increasing the NIH’s budget for the current federal fiscal year. In that funding package, legislators included language intended to prevent the NIH from implementing a 15% indirect-cost reimbursement cap. (Molteni and Oza, 4/3)
CIDRAP:
CDC, Health Groups Spent Millions To Buy Ads On Websites Flagged For Misinformation
Government agencies, health advocacy groups, and health-related businesses spent nearly $37 million over four years to advertise on news websites accused of promoting misinformation, a new study shows. Although authors of the report question the wisdom of financially supporting websites whose content undermines public health, marketing experts say it’s important to reach vaccine-hesitant consumers, wherever they’re found. (Szabo, 4/3)
On the immigration crisis —
AP:
Toddler Suffered Alleged Abuse While In Federal Immigration Custody
For five months, the young father waited for his 3-year-old daughter’s release from federal custody after she crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with her mother, hoping through delays for their safe reunion. Only when he turned to the courts as a last resort did he learn that the girl had suffered alleged sexual abuse at the foster home where she’d been placed after immigration officials separated her from her mother. (Gonzalez, 4/5)
KFF Health News:
Immigrant Seniors Lose Medicare Coverage Despite Paying For It
Rosa María Carranza leaned forward to hold a 3-year-old’s back as the girl climbed a rock in the forested hills of northeast Oakland. Dressed in hiking gear and beaded necklaces, Carranza, 67, maneuvered between trees and children on a sunny morning in December. “Hold on to that branch,” she said in Spanish. “You can do it, my love!” (Sánchez, 4/6)
Also —
Politico:
How The GOP’s Fraud Crackdown Could Impact The Midterms
Republicans have found their health care message for the midterms: fraud. The White House and Congress have taken big public steps in recent months to highlight what they call rampant fraud in several blue states, taking action after YouTuber Nick Shirley went viral last year exposing fraudulent Medicaid providers in Minnesota. (King, 4/5)
Stat:
What The Peptide Craze Reveals About Americans’ Relationship With Risk
RFK Jr.'s apparent contradiction on vaccines and peptides reflects a deeper belief: Americans have a right to try and can choose their own risks. (Todd, 4/6)
NPR:
The US Saved Millions Of Lives With Its HIV/AIDS Work, Now That Aid Is In Peril
Studying labor law is not why Dr. Caspian Chouraya went to medical school. For more than two decades, he's worked in HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Now, he oversees HIV/AIDS programs in 12 African countries for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. But in recent months, Chouraya finds himself talking to legal advisors and burying himself in the law surrounding layoffs in various African countries. This is because for months, U.S. funding has been arriving in fits and starts. Not knowing when funds will arrive is undermining one of the U.S.'s most successful global health initiatives — the worldwide fight to combat HIV/AIDS. (Emanuel, Lambert and Tanis, 4/4)
