83億美元的美國冠狀病毒基金將何去何從

83億美元的美國冠狀病毒基金將何去何從

The coronavirus funding bill signed into law by the president Friday puts much more money toward treating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 than his administration requested from Congress last week.

上周五總統(tǒng)簽署的冠狀病毒資助法案在治療和預防COVID-19病毒傳播方面投入的資金比他領(lǐng)導的政府上周向國會提出的要求多得多。

The Trump administration's initial request — in the form of a two-page letter to Congress on Feb. 24 — was for $1.25 billion in new funds, with additional money moved from other parts of the federal budget to get to a total of $2.5 billion. The amount authorized Friday is more than three times that.

特朗普政府在2月24日給國會的一封兩頁的信中提出的最初要求是提供12.5億美元的新資金，并從聯(lián)邦預算的其他部分調(diào)撥額外資金，總計達到25億美元。星期五批準的數(shù)額是這個數(shù)字的三倍多。

"It's a significant amount of money," says Jen Kates of the Kaiser Family Foundation. In comparison, Congress put $5.4 billion toward the Ebola response in 2014. and nearly $7 billion for H1N1 in 2009 — though, of course, each epidemic is different and requires a different response.

凱撒家族基金會的詹凱茨說：“這是一大筆錢。相比之下，美國國會在2014年投入54億美元用于應對埃博拉疫情，在2009年投入近70億美元用于應對H1N1流感——當然，每一種疫情都不同，需要不同的應對措施。

"It appears to me to be an appropriate number to definitely begin the fight," says Chris Meekins, a health care policy analyst.

“在我看來，這似乎是一個合適的數(shù)字，可以肯定地開始這場戰(zhàn)斗，”醫(yī)療政策分析師克里斯·米金斯說。

So what do taxpayers get for that $8.3 billion? Here are some highlights:

那么，納稅人能從83億美元中得到什么呢?以下是一些關(guān)鍵：

$3.1 billion for the health secretary's dispersal

為衛(wèi)生部長的疏散撥款31億美元

The biggest pot of money goes to the Office of the Secretary of HHS, and that funding is available until 2024.

其中最大的一筆資金將流入衛(wèi)生與公眾服務(wù)部部長辦公室，這筆資金的使用期限為2024年。

"I thought the flexibility they gave within the Office of the Secretary's public health emergency account was good," Meekins says. "It allows us to not just put money toward therapeutic development — also vaccine development — but also purchase additional supplies that are needed, like masks and personal protective equipment, which for years had been underfunded by Congress and administrations."

“我認為他們在部長公共衛(wèi)生應急賬戶辦公室內(nèi)給予的靈活性是好的，”米金斯說它不僅使我們能夠?qū)①Y金用于治療性開發(fā)，也用于疫苗開發(fā)，而且還可以購買所需的額外用品，如口罩和個人防護設(shè)備，這些東西多年來一直沒有得到國會和政府的充分資助。”

Of that money, $100 million is directed to community health centers for underserved groups. "I think that a focus on underserved populations is going to continue to be very important as we see more cases in more states," says Beth Cameron who works on global biological policy for the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

其中1億美元直接用于社區(qū)衛(wèi)生中心，幫助得不到充分服務(wù)的群體。“我認為，隨著我們在更多的國家看到更多的病例，關(guān)注服務(wù)不足人口將繼續(xù)非常重要，”負責《核威脅倡議》全球生物政策的貝絲·卡梅倫說。

During the Obama Administration, she served as senior director for Global Health, Security and Biodefense on the White House's National Security Council, a position that was eliminated by the Trump administration in 2018.

在奧巴馬政府期間，她曾在白宮國家安全委員會擔任全球衛(wèi)生、安全和生物防御高級主任，這個職位在2018年被特朗普政府取消。

$950 million for state and local health departments

為州和地方衛(wèi)生部門提供9.5億美元

Of all of the $950 million for state and local public health response that's to be dispersed via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, half must be allocated within 30 days.

通過美國疾病控制與預防中心分發(fā)的9.5億美元州級和地方公共衛(wèi)生響應資金中，有一半必須在30天內(nèi)撥付。

$300 million to buy vaccines and treatments

3億美元用于購買疫苗和治療

Will whatever treatments or vaccines that are eventually developed for coronavirus be affordable?

最終能負擔得起為冠狀病毒開發(fā)的任何治療方法或疫苗嗎?

That was a question put to the head of the federal coronavirus task force and HHS Secretary Alex Azar by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill. at a hearing last week.Azar responded that he couldn't guarantee affordability: "We would want to ensure we work to make [a vaccine] affordable, but we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest."

這是在上周的聽證會上，伊利諾伊州民主黨眾議員沙考斯基向聯(lián)邦冠狀病毒特別工作組負責人、美國衛(wèi)生與公眾服務(wù)部(HHS)部長阿萊克斯·阿扎提出的問題。阿扎回應說，他不能保證負擔得起:“我們希望確保我們的工作能讓人們負擔得起(一種疫苗)，但我們無法控制價格，因為我們需要私營部門的投資。”

$1.25 billion for international activities

12.5億美元用于國際活動

The Trump administration's original request to Congress was focused purely on responding to coronavirus on the domestic front. As Azar explained in another Congressional hearing last week: "Our activities are really containment and mitigation preparation in the homeland."

特朗普政府最初向國會提出的要求純粹是為了應對國內(nèi)戰(zhàn)線上的冠狀病毒。正如阿扎上周在另一次國會聽證會上所解釋的：“我們的活動實際上是在本土上進行遏制和緩解準備。”

What may be missing from the funding package

資助計劃中可能遺漏的內(nèi)容

Nothing in this law spells out how much, if any, money will go to reimburse hospitals or patients for medical care associated with COVID-19 treatment. Some announcements came through this week that the diagnostic test will be covered by many private insurers and Medicare and Medicaid, but there will be lots of other expenses associated with COVID-19 care.

這部法律沒有規(guī)定，如果有的話，多少錢將用于補償醫(yī)院或患者的醫(yī)療護理相關(guān)的COVID-19治療。本周有消息稱，這項診斷測試將由許多私人保險公司、醫(yī)療保險和醫(yī)療補助計劃承擔，但還有許多與COVID-19 醫(yī)療相關(guān)的其他費用。