Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®.

This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.

News Release

THE TOP TWELVE
HHS Highlights -- 2003

Improving Medicare

• President Bush signed landmark legislation to improve Medicare -- the most significant enhancement in the program in nearly 40 years.

• Benefits include new prescription drug coverage, increased choice among health insurance options, and better benefits including more access to comprehensive health screenings and other preventive care.

Public Health Emergency Preparedness

• HHS continued to expand the emergency response capacity of the nation's public health system. Federal investment in public health emergency preparedness grew from $305 million in FY 2001 to $4.4 billion in FY 2003, up 15 times.

• The BioShield initiative was proposed by the President and readied for launching in 2004, to provide $5.6 billion over 10 years for medical countermeasures against possible bioterror disease agents. BioShield creates a faster mechanism to develop products that respond to new threats and new scientific opportunities.

• America's public health system is better prepared for domestic emergencies than ever before in our history.

Promoting Healthy Lifestyles and Preventing Chronic Disease

• HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson crusaded for healthy habits, and the problem of overweight in America became a staple of the nation's news diet.

• HHS launched the STEPS program to support community-wide disease prevention, and carried out aggressive efforts against diabetes and other preventable diseases.

• FDA required food labeling for transfats and laid the groundwork for broad new efforts to provide health information on foods.

• Smoking continued to decline, and retailers' compliance with youth tobacco access laws reached an all-time high.

Expanding Access to Health Care

• HRSA accelerated its expansion of community health centers, serving patients regardless of ability to pay. Since 2001, access has been extended to 2.2 million more people through 490 new and expanded health center sites -- part of the President's 5-year plan to fund 1,200 new and expanded sites and serve 16 million Americans, up 60 percent from 2001

• HHS helped states develop new approaches to expanding coverage and avoiding reductions in their Medicaid and SCHIP programs. Congress and the administration provided $10 billion in extra support to states as they faced fiscal crises in their health programs.

• HHS also supported states in developing new insurance pools for people too ill to obtain conventional health coverage; and the administration led efforts to enact new Health Savings Accounts that offer affordable health insurance options for small businesses and individuals.

• FDA launched an initiative to improve access to safe, lower-cost generic drugs.

• The Indian Health Service continued construction of new and improved facilities.

Helping Those Most in Need and Enabling Self-Sufficiency

• The TANF program, created under welfare reform in 1996, continued to succeed in helping recipients train for work, find jobs and increase their income -- despite the economic downturn. From 2001 to 2003, welfare caseloads remained stable at less than half their 1996 level, while the poverty rate in America remained lower than the 1996 level.

• ACF launched two new programs: mentoring for children of prisoners, and education/training vouchers for foster care youth nearing adulthood. ACF also continued to find more adoptive homes for young children in foster care.

• The new Compassion Capital Fund helped faith-based organizations participate in delivery of federally-funded services.

• Quality and accountability improved in the Head Start program, with assessments completed for 400,000 Head Start 4-year-olds, and new training reaching more than 3,000 teachers.

• ACF built Healthy Marriage training into numerous programs, to help support strong, intact families for children of all income levels.

• Secretary Thompson became chair of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the administration announced a strategy for ending chronic homelessness within ten years.

Investing in Biomedical Research

• The 5-year commitment to double research investment at NIH was completed, fulfilling the President's promise. Funding increased from $13.6 billion in FY 1998 to $27.2 billion in FY 2003. Some 10,000 more grants are supported, and 1,500 more researchers trained each year as a result of the doubling.

• The NIH director also laid out a new strategic "roadmap" to accelerate NIH-supported research and deliver its benefits rapidly to patients in the years ahead.

• The National Cancer Institute director set a goal of eliminating suffering and death due to cancer by 2015.

Fighting HIV/AIDS at Home and Around the Globe

• FDA approved a rapid HIV test for wide use, and CDC launched a new AIDS prevention initiative to help ensure that those with HIV know they are infected, so they can take steps to prevent transmission.

• In his State of the Union address, President Bush announced the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a $15 billion initiative to combat the global AIDS pandemic.

• Secretary Thompson became chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and led the largest-ever delegation of government and private sector leaders to Africa to raise awareness of the pandemic and urge support for the Global Fund.

Containing Newly Emergent Disease

• CDC led successful efforts to contain SARS, a virulent new disease -- as well as monkeypox, which infected humans for the first time ever in the Western Hemisphere.
• The SARS virus was quickly identified and CDC worked closely with the World Health Organization to address the challenge. Imports of several exotic animals were quickly banned to contain possible spread of monkeypox.
• The success of these responses relied on many new disease surveillance and preparedness systems created in recent years to prepare America against bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.

Enhancing Food Safety

• FDA doubled its food safety efforts, with inspectors in 90 ports conducting 63,000 import inspections in FY 2003, up from 40 ports and 12,000 inspections in FY 2002.
• FDA also began implementing new programs mandated by Congress, including registration of food suppliers and prior notice of food import shipments.
• HHS worked closely with the Agriculture Department to address a case of Mad Cow disease and take new steps to ensure the disease would not spread in the United States.

Building Safety and Quality Improvement into Health Care

• Medicare pressed forward with its quality of care initiative, adding home health agencies to the effort launched in 2002 for nursing homes. Americans can now get comparative quality information about specific home health agencies and nursing homes.

• Medicare also began collecting quality data about individual hospitals. Providing this information gives consumers more power in choosing their providers, and it motivates the providers to keep quality high.

• FDA took new steps to reduce medical errors, including proposed regulations to require bar-coding of drugs and heightened safety reporting requirements.

• In addition, AHRQ issued the first National Healthcare Quality Report, providing baseline information about the quality of care provided nationally and providing a roadmap for improvement.

Reducing Substance Abuse and Improving Mental Health Services

• Teen drug abuse reached the lowest levels in a decade, reversing a resurgence of teen drug use during the 1990s. Drug use by 8th, 10th and 12th graders declined 11 percent from 2001 to 2003, exceeding the President's goal of reducing teen drug use by 10 percent in two years.

• SAMHSA prepared to carry out the President's pledge in his State of the Union address to expand access to recovery from drug addiction.

• The President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health also delivered its final report with recommendations for a fundamental overhaul of the nation's mental health services system.

Protecting Health Care Consumers

• FDA launched a special task force to lead new efforts against counterfeit drugs, and it stepped up efforts against false health claims.

• In particular, the agency announced it would act to prohibit the sale of ephedra, the diet supplement advertised to help lose weight and improve athletic performance. This decision broke new ground as the first-ever removal of a dangerous product under the standards of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994.

More Background on HHS Highlights for 2003:

• Medicare Improvement Act, 2003 -- http://www.medicare.gov/MedicareReform/

• Public Health Emergency Preparedness, 2003 -- http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2004pres/20040428.html

• National Institutes of Health: Research Advances, 2003 -- http://www.nih.gov/about/researchadvances.htm

• Food and Drug Administration: Consumer Health and Safety, 2003 -- http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2004/NEW01004.html

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "State of CDC," 2003 -- http://www.cdc.gov/CDC.pdf

###

Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at http://www.hhs.gov/news.

Last Revised: January 16, 2004