Health Care And the US Fiscal 1996 Budget

President Bill Clinton's budget for fiscal 1996, which he has just submitted to Congress, would increase public health expenditures by $735 million, with over 25% of this going to AIDS research and prevention. The other major beneficiaries of the 3.4% increase to the public health agencies would be the National Institutes of Health and the childhood vaccination program.

Specifically, spending on the AIDS program would be raised by $200 million, or 6.8%, with $72 million of the increase going to the NIH for research into AIDS, and $35 million to prevention programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overall, the NIH would get a $468 million increase, 4.1% more than its 1995 budget. Included in its funding would be $15 million to continue identifying human genes and $30 million for a new NIH hospital.

The budget also calls for a net increase of $13 million for the CDC, for the immunization of pre-schoolers, to be added to the $25 million the CDC expects to get through savings from a legislative proposal to reduce vaccine excise taxes.