The $2.75 billion increase in funding for the US National Institutes ofHealth included in President George W Bush's fiscal 2002 budget (Marketletter April 16) has been welcomed by health groups, but not so a further budget proposal to cut $109 million from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The budget appears to reverse the adage that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," according to William Bryant, chairman of the board of the American Health Association, who noted that it includes "nearly appropriate attention to curing disease, but not enough focus on disease prevention," reports Reuters.
While the House of Representatives vote on a budget blueprint adhered fairly closely to Pres Bush's plans, the corresponding vote in the Senate approved $300 billion over 10 years to be used for Medicare reform and provision of a prescription drug benefit, doubling his request for $153 billion for this purpose. However, Republicans quoted by the New York Times said that the Senate vote had only been for the creation of a reserve fund of $300 billion, which could be used to provide a prescription drug benefit at a later date, but that there was no guarantee that it would be.
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