Feb 16 2012
The Wall Street Journal reports the plan would scale back money for public health and prevention programs; The Associated Press covers the debate about the proposed defense budget, which would scale back retirees' health coverage.
The Wall Street Journal: What Obama's Budget Proposal Means For Disease Prevention
Obama's fiscal 2013 budget would scale back the Prevention and Public Health Fund, established as part of the health law, by over $4 billion by fiscal 2022 - leaving that much less money for public-health prevention programs meant to thwart outbreaks or cut down on rates of diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions that account for 75% of U.S. health-care costs. ... the prevention fund has been used heavily to compensate for cuts to the regular budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention rather than for its originally intended use - new disease prevention-related programs (McKay, 2/14).
The Associated Press: Panetta, Dempsey Defend Military Budget Plan
While military personnel still would get a 1.7 percent pay raise, retirees would get hit with a series of increases in health care fees, co-pays and deductibles. The impact would be greater on those who are under 65 and are likely to have another job, as well as on those who make more money (Baldor, 2/14).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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