On March 16, President Donald Trump released a proposed 2018 budget that would cut the budget of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by $15 billion, a 17.9% decrease from 2017.
The cut would help offset a $54 billion increase in defense spending outlined in the proposal.
The proposed budget would also cut $6 billion from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), while also merging the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) into the NIH.
Finally, the budget would cut more than $400 million from physician and nurse training programs, "which lack evidence that they significantly improve the nation's health workforce," according to the document.
