President Donald Trump released a 2026 proposed budget on Friday that would cut $33.3 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, a 26.2% reduction from 2025.
A proposed $674 million would be cut from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Program Management.
Other cuts include $3.6 billion reduction in discretionary funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an $18 billion reduction for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a $240 million reduction for Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Hospital Preparedness Program, according to a letter from Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
The budget does provide $500 million to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, the report said.
The budget released by the OMB shows no cuts to Medicare or Medicaid.
WHY THIS MATTERS
While the president's 2026 budget represents what the administration wants to see happen, Congress is back at work reconciling budget plans. A budget resolution has called for the Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts, with the bulk expected to come from Medicaid.
The Energy and Commerce Committee has delayed the markup of a megabill until the week of May 12, to give House GOP leaders time to resolve issues over Medicaid cuts, according to Politico.
THE LARGER TREND
A key budget issues is whether Republicans will implement a controversial proposal to cap federal Medicaid payments to states, Politico said. If passed, the cap would cut a key Medicaid financing tool used to help states pay for healthcare programs.
House Republicans are reportedly eyeing "per capita caps" for Medicaid. The caps would not technically change Medicaid benefits but would put a cap on federal Medicaid payments to states that expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act, according to The Hill.
ON THE RECORD
Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, said: "President Trump's budget is so draconian and extreme that even some of his allies in Congress can't support it, and rightly so. President Trump's budget is just another example of this administration taking a chainsaw to our nation's health system – these cuts would be devastating not just for the remaining heroic public servants responsible for protecting our health, but would also undermine and even dismantle core functions of our nation's services to provide coverage and care and overall public health for the American people."
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org