By Don C. Reed
America is locked in a gigantic conflict — the war against chronic disease. (1)
Do I exaggerate?
Our nation’s total health care cost is $4.5 trillion dollars.
Ninety per cent of that (90%) goes to the costs of chronic (long-lasting or incurable) diseases: $4 trillion dollars. We spend that mountain of money caring for people — easing their misery as best we can — but what we really need is cures. We don’t want to make people better; we want them well.
Consider the cost of the single largest item in the federal budget — the military — which cost $841 billion last year. That paid for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines — plus the Coast Guard and Space Force. (2)
How much do we spend actually trying to cure disease?
California has a magnificent stem cell research program (the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, or CIRM), which has a total budget of $8.5 billion.
But the number one source of continuing medical research funding is the National Institutes of Health (NIH). (3)
Last year’s NIH budget was $48 billion, roughly the same as the year before and the year before that. The direction of NIH funding has been described as “flat”. If we want more results, we must increase the funding.
Unfortunately, we are headed in exactly the wrong direction.
The proposed medical research budget for 2026 was cut almost by half: $27 billion dollars instead of $48 billion.
These ae not empty numbers on a page: they stand for friends, neighbors, children, people we know and care about.
Consider those who wear a uniform in the service of our country — from the Army to the Post Office — and everybody else.
Men and women of the military risk their lives to keep the peace; what should we do for them?
President Lincoln said it best, summing up our responsibility in a few short words: “We must care for those who shall have born the battle, and his widow and his orphan…”
There are more such noble folks than perhaps we realize.
“One in ten veterans alive today was seriously injured while serving in the military…2.2 million wounded warriors…”(4)
Those who complain about the cost of caring for veterans should perhaps enlist for a couple of years, to serve our country instead of whining about it!
Nor can we forget the rest of our family: the peacetime ill and injured.
Last year, 133 million Americans endured one (or more!) chronic diseases. (5)
Cancer, paralysis, heart attack, stroke, and more — millions suffer, millions die — there may not be gunshots, but it’s a war nonetheless. Research is the way we fight.
We must protect and increase research for cure: the NIH is an army on our side.
P.S. UPDATE:
“By early April, the NIH had experienced $2.4 billion in canceled and frozen grants and contracts, had fired 1,200 employees, and induced retirement and resignations from a yet unspecified number…Brookings Institute.” (6)
1. https://www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/data-research/facts-stats/index.html
2. https://www.armedservices.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy24_ndaa_conference_executive_summary1.pdf
5. Wu, S. and Green, A. (2000). Projection of Chronic Illness Prevalence and Cost Inflation. RAND Corporation.