Obama’s FY15 budget allocates $77B for HHS
President Obama has unveiled his $3.9 trillion fiscal year 2015 budget proposal, which allocates $77.1 billion to support the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and $1.8 billion for health IT incentive payments. The HHS budget is about $800 million below 2014 levels while proposed allocations for health IT incentives remain the same as last year.
“The budget prioritizes core services and programs and makes targeted investments in training and support of healthcare providers, innovative biomedical research, food and drug safety, mental health services, healthcare for American Indians and Alaska natives, early childhood programs and services for other vulnerable populations,” according to a summary in the White House's eight-page budget description for the agency.
Some of the funding highlights for HHS include:
- Support for Affordable Care Act health insurance coverage.
- Investing $14.6 billion over 10 years in an initiative to implement innovative policies to train new healthcare providers and ensure that the future healthcare workforce is prepared to deliver high-quality and efficient healthcare services.
- Promoting innovative medical research by channeling $30.2 billion for the National Institutes of Health.
- Improving and expanding mental health services for youth and families through the president’s Now is the Time initiative and targeted investment in the Medicaid program.
- Strengthening national preparedness for terrorist threats to public health.
- Increasing funding for Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships and additional funds to expand evidence-based voluntary home visiting.
- Assisting vulnerable populations by investing in improving outcomes for children in foster care and domestic violence and human trafficking victims.
Read the full HHS budget here.