President Barack Obama has requested a $3.8 trillion federal budget for fiscal year 2011 that includes $81.3 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services – a $1.7 billion increase over what Congress approved in fiscal year 2010.
Rob Nabors, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said the president plans to base long-term federal deficit reduction on healthcare reform.
"Getting health reform passed is critical," he said, adding that the administration is confident Congress will pass a reform bill.
In support of health insurance reform, Obama is requesting $110 million to strengthen healthcare IT policy, coordination and research activities. He is also requesting $286 million for research that compares the effectiveness of different medical options, building on the expansion of research begun under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
In addition, Obama wants $2.5 billion to help health centers expand coverage to 2 million additional patients and build approximately 25 new health centers.
Other highlights of the president's healthcare funding requests include $25.5 billion for additional federal Medicaid assistance to help states maintain their Medicaid programs and $371 billion over 10 years to prevent Medicare reimbursement cuts to physicians. Obama’s plan also includes $32.1 billion to support biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, including more than $6 billion for cancer research.
The president told Congress that healthcare is "the single biggest threat to our nation's fiscal future." He said his budget would be fiscally responsible, "would not add a dime" to the deficit and would lower the rate of healthcare cost growth in the long run.
Republicans disagreed strongly with Obama’s characterization of his budget requests.
"The president's budget is just more of the same at a time when the American people are looking for Democrats in Washington to listen and change course," said House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio).
Democratic leaders in Congress have offered initial endorsement to the healthcare components of the president’s budget.
Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called health reform a “critical component in our effort to combat a decade of ballooning federal deficits.” He said healthcare reform legislation would “cut our debt by as much as $150 billion in the 10 years following enactment and hundreds of billions more in the decade that follows."