WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- The $81.3 billion U.S. Health and Human Services Department FY2011 budget request aids reform, access and preventive and wellness care, officials said.
The budget seeks $110 million to strengthen health IT policy, coordination and research activities. Another $2.5 billion would be available for health centers to provide affordable quality primary and preventive care to underserved populations, including the uninsured, the Office of Management and Budget said Monday in a fact sheet.
Among the allocations to help protect healthcare access for low-income Americans is $25.5 billion for additional federal Medicaid assistance to help states maintain Medicaid programs and ensure access to healthcare for millions of Americans.
Indian Health Services would receive $4.4 billion to expand investments initiated in 2010. The National Institutes of Health would receive $32.1 billion, including more than $6 billion for cancer research.
The budget includes language that would boost core prevention activities by expanding community health activities, strengthening the public health workforce, and enhancing surveillance and health statistics to improve detection and monitoring of chronic disease.
Several other allocations would help fund statistical programs and federal workplace wellness initiatives.
More than $400 million is allocated to enhance the development of next-generation medical countermeasures against chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, among other efforts to strengthen U.S. preparedness against threats and attacks, the fact sheet said.
National Health Service Corps would receive $169 million to place providers in medically underserved areas to improve access to services. Under the NHSC, primary health professionals such as physicians, nurse practitioners and dentists would work in a medically underserved community in exchange for having a portion of their student loans repaid.
The department's FY2010 budget is $79.6 billion, excluding a $2.4 billion transfer of the Bioshield Special Reserve Fund balance from the Homeland Security Department to the Health and Human Services Department.
