Released on May 23, 2017, President Trump’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2018 budget would cut spending for healthcare programs.  Specifically, the proposed budget would reduce funding for biomedical research, programs to fight infectious diseases, and Medicaid.

President Trump’s proposed budget would cut Medicaid by approximately $610 billion over 10 years.  In addition, funding for the National Institutes of Health would be reduced by almost $6 billion, and funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would be cut by $1.3 billion.  The proposed FY 2018 budget would reduce funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by $854 million; however, the proposed budget would increase FDA user fees by $1.3 billion, which would result in an overall program increase of about $450 million.  The proposed FY 2018 budget also increases spending on the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control program by about $70 million and proposes spending $5.25 billion on healthcare anti-fraud programs over the next 10 years.

The President’s budget proposal is considered to be a forecast of the Administration’s priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, but is not a binding document.  Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, who lead the legislative effort to allocate funding for the Federal government’s operations and discretionary programs, have described the President’s proposals as “dead on arrival” and have suggested that the committees will take a fresh look at the nation’s budgetary needs in the coming months.

The proposed FY 2018 Budget can be found here.