Trump Budget Proposal Cuts MH, Substance Use Services
Abstract
APA is calling on Congress to reject the proposed budget in favor of a bipartisan solution that ensures Americans get the health care they need.
The White House budget proposed in late May for Fiscal 2018 signals potential harm to mental health and substance use care and the future of medical research. It would cut the National Institutes of Health budget by $5.8 billion as well as the budgets of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Medicaid, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration.
These and other proposed reductions are meant to offset a $54 billion increase in defense spending that President Donald Trump is planning for Fiscal 2018.
These are among the targeted cuts that impact mental health care and medical research:
A more than $252 million cut to the budget of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Programs that could be affected include the Community Mental Health Services Block Grant, the Primary and Behavioral Healthcare Integration Program, and the Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training program.
Approximately $627 billion in cuts to Medicaid over 10 years.
A $1.2 billion cut from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, targeting HIV/AIDS programs and chronic disease prevention among other programs.
An almost $1 billion cut from the Food and Drug Administration.
“The proposed budget cuts will roll back much of the recent advances the nation has made in terms of health care,” said APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A. “We need more funding for medical research and prevention programs, not less. We call upon members of both parties to work together to fund these vital programs and initiatives.”
Trump’s budget proposal is far from a done deal, however. “It is being greeted by both sides of the aisle as not viable,” said Ariel Gonzalez, J.D., APA’s chief of government affairs. “It’s not something that’s going to be passed in its current form. It’s a political document, a statement by the president as to what his priorities are.”
Gonzalez used the Fiscal 2017 budget as an example. In a rejection of the White House proposal for 2017 to cut $1.2 billion from the budget of the National Institutes of Health, Congress pushed through a bipartisan deal that increased its funding by $2 billion (Psychiatric News, June 2). ■
