HEALTH

Funding for medical research, health training takes hit in Trump budget

President Donald Trump's budget outline shook the Washington, D.C., establishment last week with its proposed cuts to many agencies and programs. For critics, the good news is that the power of the purse remains with Congress, which is unlikely to go along on many of Trump's cost-savings ideas. Here's how it could affect health training and medical research in Arizona.

Ken Alltucker, and Anne Ryman
The Republic | azcentral.com
President Donald Trump's budget would slash $5.8 billion from the National Institutes of Health. In Arizona, NIH funds dozens of projects, including grants to Banner Alzheimer’s Institute to study whether drugs can help prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease.

President Donald Trump’s budget outline would have widespread implications for health-care training and research in Arizona, including at the state's universities.

The budget would eliminate $403 million in training programs for nurses and health professionals. The budget would, however, maintain training programs that place practitioners in communities with a shortage of health professionals.

Trump’s budget would slash $5.8 billion from the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s principal funding body of medical research.

MORE: How Trump budget could affect Arizona

Among the cuts at NIH include the elimination of the Fogarty International Center, which funds global research. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which produces evidence-based information on health care, would be folded into NIH.

In Arizona, NIH funds dozens of projects by scientists researching diseases such as skin cancer, asthma and the genetic underpinning of disease. Banner Alzheimer’s Institute has secured nearly $50 million in grants to study whether drugs can help prevent or delay Alzheimer’s disease.

RELATED: Arizona drug studies target Alzheimer's earlier

Banner Health and the University of Arizona also teamed up on a $4 million precision-medicine project that seeks ways to treat and prevent disease. The research project could command up to $43 million over five years, but the grant must be renewed each year.

Trump's proposed 20 percent NIH cut would be a blow to higher education funding because university researchers are among the many recipients of money from the agency. Less money could make it tougher for university researchers to get grants.

Arizona State University, for instance, received $48.5 million in NIH funding for fiscal year 2016. The university’s total research funding from all sources — including government, private and other sources  —  was about $518 million that year.

ASU officials said it’s too early to speculate about other effects of the president’s proposed budget.

"Generally, ASU has a diverse research portfolio, and as in past years, reductions in one area may well bring gains in another. We will watch closely as this initial budget proposal makes its way through Congress,” ASU said in a statement.

The budget blueprint did not spell out details for Medicare, the government insurance program for adults 65 and older. Nor did Trump’s budget include details on Medicaid, the federal-state health program that serves nearly 2 million Arizonans.

Read more about the local effects of Trump's budget: