Congress Passes Sweeping Health Care Bill

Congress Passes Sweeping Well being Care Invoice

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7, 2016 (HealthDay Information) -- The U.S. Congress has handed sweeping bipartisan well being care laws supposed to develop medical analysis and pace up approval of latest medicine and medical gadgets.

The $6.three billion invoice, referred to as the 21st Century Cures Act, is a posh seize bag of initiatives amounting to almost 1,000 pages that President Barack Obama is predicted to signal into legislation.

In a press release launched Wednesday, Obama signaled his help for the invoice.

"We at the moment are one step nearer to ending most cancers as we all know it, unlocking cures for ailments like Alzheimer's, and serving to folks looking for therapy for opioid dependancy lastly get the assistance they want," he mentioned. "This invoice will make a giant distinction, and I stay up for signing it as quickly because it reaches my desk."

The Senate handed the invoice as we speak by a vote of 94-5, and the Home handed an virtually an identical model on Dec. 1, at 392-26.

The invoice comprises $four.eight billion in spending over 10 years for brand spanking new analysis on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, together with:

• $1.eight billion for the most cancers analysis "moonshot" championed by Vice President Joe Biden.
• $1.56 billion for the BRAIN Initiative, a undertaking to create new applied sciences that may permit for complete mapping of the human mind.
• $1.four billion for the Precision Medication Initiative, a undertaking supported by Obama to gather genetic knowledge on a million American volunteers that might be used to assist develop new therapies.

The invoice authorizes the NIH to finance high-risk, high-reward analysis utilizing particular procurement procedures, relatively than by standard grants and contracts, The New York Instances stories. The company additionally will set up "Eureka prize" competitions to advance medical analysis.

The nation's prescription drug abuse disaster is also addressed within the laws. States will obtain grants price $1 billion over the following two years for drug abuse prevention and therapy applications.

New positions on the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers might be established to coordinate psychological well being and substance abuse analysis and therapy.