Government
Health spending bill moves forward
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 4, 2005
The House Appropriations Committee recently approved a fiscal year 2006 labor, health and education spending bill that tops $600 billion, the bulk of which would fund entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. Under the measure, the National Institutes of Health would receive $28.5 billion, an increase of $142 million over 2005, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would get $6.1 billion, a decrease of $295 million.
Other allocations in the bill include $1.8 billion for community health centers, $890 million for implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit, $75 million for health information technology, $75 million for faith-based programs and $115 million for abstinence education. The House committee also added an amendment to the measure that would bar use of funds appropriated in the bill to provide erectile dysfunction drugs to convicted sex offenders.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/07/04/gvbf0704.htm.