Budget proposes spending cuts in US public health programmes

President Bush's proposed 2006 budget includes spending cuts for public health programmes, including those of the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention.

But the new budget contains increases for some other health programmes and bodies, including Medicare, which provides healthcare insurance to elderly people, and the Food and Drug Administration. President Bush is also requesting money to boost the country's emergency stockpile of vaccines and drugs.

The $555m (£294m; €428m) cut in the 2006 budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) would result largely from what officials called a “pause” in new …