DorlandHealth

In the wake of health care reform’s recent impasse, President Obama announced the federal government’s spending power next year, and health sectors are among the areas receiving a boost. The fiscal year 2011 budget announced yesterday projects a total of $900 billion directed to the Department of Health and Human Services, with increases over the current year for the National Institutes of Health, Medicare and Medicaid.

The budget also addresses a host of topic-specific initiatives like health IT, patient-centered research, and preventive care. Some of the language in the proposal picks up on strands carrying through from the stimulus package and the moribund reform bills.

Overall, HHS will see more than a 10 percent increase in 2011 over the current year, which is projected at $812 billion. The NIH will see a $1 billion increase in funds, largely directed to biomedical research. Medicare and Medicaid both will see appreciable increases, with Medicare’s outlay totaling $489 billion, up from the current year’s $450 billion, and Medicaid’s clocking in at $264, up from $245 billion in 2010. The Medicare outlay is an increase of more than 10 percent—nearly 15 percent from 2009—and Medicaid rises roughly 7 percent (and 17 percent from ’09).

From the increase in discretionary spending, it appears that the viability of health care in general and the address of expenditures remain part of the White House’s strategy to exert some type of economic balance and cushion the massive job losses that have pushed the unemployment rate beyond 10 percent. Discretionary spending will hit more than $81 billion in 2011, up $1.7 billion from the current year. Specific areas that will receive funding and resources include the following: