Public Health and Prevention

CBO is looking for new research on how nutritional standards in SNAP would affect recipients’ food choices, health outcomes, and health care spending.

Gene therapies replace or modify disease-causing genes in human cells. In this report, CBO discusses how it would estimate the budgetary effects of policies that sought to increase the use of gene therapy treatment for sickle cell disease.

CBO estimates the budgetary effects of an illustrative policy that would authorize Medicare to cover anti-obesity medications. The policy would apply to all beneficiaries with obesity and some beneficiaries who are classified as overweight.

CBO is looking for new research on the effectiveness of efforts to increase hepatitis C treatment, the costs of such treatment with direct-acting antiviral medications, and the costs of treating complications if the disease is untreated.

CBO describes its initial analysis of the potential federal budgetary effects of policies that would increase treatment of hepatitis C, focusing on two sample national policies that would increase treatment rates among Medicaid enrollees.

To enhance its work for the Congress, CBO is looking for new research on factors that affect the use of anti-obesity medications and the impact of that use on other health care spending.

CBO estimates the budgetary effects of options for expanding federal Medicaid payments to states for services provided to Medicaid enrollees ages 21 to 64 who are in inpatient facilities known as institutions for mental diseases.

CBO describes the effects and evolution of the opioid crisis in the United States, the factors that have contributed to it, the laws enacted to address it, and the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the crisis.

Preventive medical care includes services that can prevent diseases from occurring and detect diseases before symptoms appear. This report describes how CBO estimates the effects on the federal budget of proposals to expand the use of such services.

Given the high degree of interest in the relationship between people’s health and the federal budget, this post recaps some highlights from CBO’s report titled Raising the Excise Tax on Cigarettes: Effects on Health and the Federal Budget.

CBO has analyzed the impact of a hypothetical increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes to demonstrate the complex links between policies that aim to improve health and effects on the federal budget.