Medical Research, FDA And Mental Health Programs Face Budget Bite

Doctors serving Medicare patients. Scientists looking for a better way to treat diabetes. HIV patients who can’t afford to buy their medications. These are but some of the many people who will be affected by the automatic federal spending cuts that officially take effect today.

Both Democrats and Republicans say they didn’t like the budget reductions, called the sequester, but they couldn’t agree on how to stop them. The $85.3 billion in cuts for fiscal 2013, which ends Oct. 1, are part of a larger package of $1.2 trillion in trims scheduled to occur over the next decade. The reductions are split evenly between defense and domestic programs.

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Source: Kaiser Health News