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Correspondence
Letter in Response to FY 2002 Budget Blueprint
February 28, 2001
The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
The Coalition for Health Funding sincerely appreciates the need to balance
response to national needs and spending controls. However, the Coalition
believes that the budget blueprint released today sends a mixed message
about the importance of critical federal programs to meet the nation's
pressing health care needs in many areas.
The Coalition applauds your recommendations to provide significant increases
in FY 2002 for the National Institutes of Health and for Community Health
Centers. But these two very important entities within the U.S. Public
Health Service cannot possibly meet the entire scope of health care need
and health care challenges the U.S. now faces in the 21st century.
This can only be done through strong support for the entire continuum
of biomedical, behavioral, and health services research; disease prevention
and health promotion; targeted health care delivery for the medically
underserved; and education of a health care workforce in adequate numbers
to address the breadth of need. It is only when the whole continuum of
public health activity is strong that the nation will reap its investment:
improved health outcomes.
America continues to experience high and growing numbers of uninsured
and unacceptable disparities in health. The nation faces public health
threats such as antimicrobial resistance, bioterrorism, and devastating
infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and others that travel the globe
in a matter of hours. Chronic diseases and conditions such as heart disease
and stroke, diabetes, asthma and birth defects continue to rob millions
of Americans of normal life spans and quality of life and in some cases
are assuming epidemic proportions in growth patterns. Mental illness and
substance abuse problems are among the nation's most costly health concerns,
but receive comparatively few resources. The safety of the nation's food,
water, drugs and medical devices depends on a strong, science-based regulatory
entity. As the nation ages, we are losing key members of our healthcare
workforce that we all rely on, and that those in medically underserved
communities absolutely depend on for any measure of healthcare delivery.
Finally, undergirding all of these functions is the need to address critical
shortages of public health professionals and create a strong public health
infrastructure at the local, state and federal levels. This has been the
subject of numerous Congressional forums, hearings, and reports in the
past several years.
The Coalition for Health Funding appreciates that this first budget presentation
is only the first step in the FY 2002 budget cycle. The Coalition is working
with your Administration, and will be working with Congress, to increase
funding in those areas of the Public Health Service that are not well
supported in this first step in the process. The Coalition recommends
that all health discretionary spending needs to increase by at least $7
billion in FY 2002 to begin to meet the needs and challenges before the
nation. Today's budget blueprint requests only a $2.1 billion increase.
This means important increases for the NIH will only be accomplished by
cutting spending for many other critical health programs.
The Coalition for Health Funding is a nonprofit alliance of 40 national
voluntary and professional associations comprising approximately 40 million
health care professionals, lay volunteers, patients and families. The
Coalition works in a nonpartisan fashion to ensure that discretionary
health spending remains highly visible as Congress and the Administration
set federal budget priorities. Founded in 1970, the Coalition is the oldest,
most broadly based health coalitions focused on the budget and appropriations
process for discretionary programs.
Sincerely,
David B. Moore
President
©2008 Coalition for Health Funding