In March, the ASBMT released two separate position statements about the American Health Care Act and the Proposed NIH Budget Cuts.   

American Health Care Act

On March 6, 2017, the House Ways and Means Committee introduced the American Health Care Act (AHCA) with the goal of modifying the current Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Shortly after the release, the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation issued a report indicating that the legislation would translate to an additional 24 million uninsured Americans by 2026.

The ASBMT does not believe that the AHCA should move forward as currently proposed due to the extensive predicted losses in the number of insured individuals.

To read the full AHCA statement, click here.  

Proposed NIH Budget Cuts

On March 15, 2017, released America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again, a summary report of a proposed budget that includes a $5.8 Billion dollar decrease in funding to the National Institutes of Health. While little additional detail is available in the proposal about the specific programmatic impact of these reductions, the report notes that the cuts are intended to create “consolidations and structural changes across NIH organizations and activities. The Budget also reduces administrative costs and rebalance Federal contributions to research funding.”

On behalf of our members and the patients and families affected by hematologic malignancies, ASBMT is compelled to speak out against any proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health that would affect the advancement of science and medicine in the United States.

To read the full NIH statement, click here.    

We ask all members to contact your legislators and your internal government affairs teams to share your concerns. To find your elected representatives, please visit http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ and https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/.