GOVERNMENT & MEDICINE

Senate panel urges funding to bolster health safety net

An appropriations measure would reject cuts proposed by President Bush and provide more money for community health centers.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews staff. Aug. 5, 2002.

Washington -- With Congress headed toward a bruising appropriations battle this fall, a Senate committee has laid down the first marker in the debate over next year's spending on federally funded health care programs.

The Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously approved legislation last month that sets its proposed funding levels for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for fiscal year 2003, which begins Oct. 1.

The bill would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by $3.7 billion -- the final installment of a plan to double the NIH budget over five years.

The measure also includes increases for programs that provide health care for low-income and uninsured patients and grants that support training for physicians and other health care professionals in medically underserved communities.

Exact language was not available at press time, although some details had been made public. Physician groups and health care organizations, although still waiting to see the fine print, were cautiously upbeat.

"It doesn't look bad," said Karen Hendricks, assistant director of federal affairs at the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Among its positive aspects, the bill would increase funding for community health centers by $190 million, bringing their budget to just over $1.5 billion.

The proposed increase would keep health centers basically on track to double their patient capacity by 2006 -- an initiative that the Bush administration began pushing last year. [...]

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