President Barack Obama's $3.8 trillion federal budget request or fiscal year 2011 includes $81.3 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services - a $1.7 billion increase over what Congress approved for HHS in fiscal year 2010.
Rob Nabors, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a Monday press conference that the president plans to base long-term federal deficit reduction on healthcare reform.
"Getting health reform passed is critical," Nabors said, adding the administration is confident Congress will pass a reform bill soon.
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 this research begun under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Obama is asking for $2.5 billion to support health centers so they can 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;
* $371 billion over 10 years to prevent Medicare reimbursement cuts to physicians;
* $32.1 billion to support biomedical research at the National Institutes of Health, including more than $6 billion for cancer research;
* $169 million to increase the number of primary care physicians in underserved areas;
* $40 million to expand prevention and wellness programs;
* $4.4 billion to increase access to healthcare for American Indians and Alaska natives;
* $2.5 billion in budget authority and $4 billion in total program resources for the Food and Drug Administration; and
* More than $400 million to develop countermeasures against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats.
Obama told Congress on Monday that his budget would take on healthcare, "the single biggest threat to our nation's fiscal future." He said his budget would be fiscally responsible, "would not not add a dime" to the deficit and would lower the rate of healthcare cost growth in the long run.
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Obama "is submitting another budget that spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much."
"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," he said.
The president's annual budget request comes as Congress continues in a heated partisan debate over a healthcare reform package.
Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a key player in developing the Senate's healthcare reform bill, said he is pleased to see that healthcare reform is part of the president's budget.
"Health reform is a critical component in our effort to combat a decade of ballooning federal deficits that will 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. We must pass health care legislation quickly this year," Baucus said.