CQ Weekly: Dueling Diseases: The Race for Cure Dollars
“…As Congress assembles its budgets and spending bills, patient advocacy groups for specific diseases issue public pleas for more money for medical research — nothing as unseemly as earmarks or carve-outs, but general support for the National Institutes of Health and other politically popular health causes that tend to foment bipartisan comity. … Behind the scenes, however, the veneer of collegiality that these groups display during their rounds on Capitol Hill is cracking. Groups are jockeying to prioritize their particular diseases and stay on offense, anticipating that tight budgets brought about by the budget sequester could force lawmakers to choose between spending on Alzheimer’s and HIV/AIDS or squelch funding for some promising line of cures…” (Attias, 6/15).