A few things in the Labor/HHS spending bill

I’m obviously sympathetic to publicly funded health research. My career depends on it. So, I can’t in any unbiased way write about the Labor/HHS appropriation bill that’s headed for a vote in the House. I wouldn’t tell you how you should feel about a pending piece of legislation anyway.

But, I can tell you a bit about what’s in it and let you make your own decision. Here’s a quick summary from AcademyHealth:

[I]t completely eliminates the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (Sec. 227), and prohibits any patient-centered outcomes research (Sec. 217) and all economic research within the National Institutes of Health (Page 57, line 19).

The bold is mine. Some other things of relevance:

  • Health care spending is over one-sixth of our economy. Some might think that makes it worthy of a little research.
  • Health (and some other types of) research is a public good, the funding of which is the role of government.
  • The text of the appropriations bill is here.
  • My prior post on this subject is here.

@afrakt

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