President Joe Biden has released his $1.52 trillion budget plan for fiscal year 2022.
The proposal, released April 9, is for discretionary funding and calls for a new research agency and more funding to curb the opioid crisis.
Below are six healthcare-related proposals in the president's budget plan:
1. Discretionary funding for HHS. The proposal requests $131.7 billion in discretionary spending for HHS, a $25 billion or 23.5 percent increase from funding levels the year prior.
2. Discretionary funding for CMS. The proposal requests $8.7 billion in discretionary spending for CMS, the largest budget authority increase in nearly 20 years. This spending would focus on data collection modernization, as well as training and hiring more epidemiologists to support local public health departments, according to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
3. Strategic National Stockpile. The proposed budget plan calls for $905 million for the Strategic National Stockpile, the U.S. emergency reserve of medical supplies and equipment, designed for use during public health emergencies.
4. New research agency. As part of his requested National Institutes of Health funding, President Biden has requested an initial $6.5 billion for a new research agency called the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. The agency would focus on research of diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's.
5. Efforts to combat HIV and the opioid epidemic. The budget plan calls for an additional $3.9 billion to curb the opioid crisis, as well as $670 million, an increase of $267 million over 2021 funding levels, to curb HIV.
6. Veterans' healthcare. Under the budget plan, the Biden adminstration proposes $97.5 billion to improve access to healthcare for veterans, including increases in funding for women’s health, mental health, suicide prevention and veterans' homeless programs. T
Read The Wall Street Journal article here and The New York Times article here. Read the full budget plan here.