Why President Trump Should Use Foreign Aid For Health To Make America Great

The Trump administration recently proposed to make major cuts to US foreign assistance, including the $10.3 billion a year that the federal government spends to advance global health through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and the United Nations. As practitioners with more than 60 years of combined experience, we believe that the Trump administration is making a terrible mistake. Investing in global health is essential to the safety, security, and future prosperity of the United States, in addition to being a highly effective way to fight extreme poverty and avert illness, suffering, and premature death for millions of our fellow human beings. While health aid consumes a mere 0.25 percent of the federal budget, it is a great investment with tremendous returns for the American people. In addition to the humanitarian case for foreign aid, there are three very powerful reasons, which are aligned with President Donald Trump’s populist “America first” vision, why the administration should maintain and even spend more on global health. 1. Deadly Epidemics Threaten US Lives And Prosperity Over the course of the past two decades, we have faced numerous periodic crises stemming from infectious diseases, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), swine flu, Ebola, and now the Zika virus. Each of these cost US lives and billions of US dollars in response. The emer...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Global Health Policy Population Health Public Health epidemics foreign aid humanitarian aid infectious diseases PEPFAR US foreign assistance Source Type: blogs