How the economic stimulus package may impact health care providers, patients with cancer

Everywhere I look on the news and Internet, I see breakdowns of the economic stimulus package. So let's take a moment to break down how this may affect you as a cancer health care provider or how it will affect your patients and their families:

The always awesome Livestrong group (you know, Lance Armstrong's cancer survivorship-focused organization) has a blog post about how the stimulus package will affect cancer survivors. Highlights include expanding Cobra coverage for those who lost their jobs from September through December 2008, as well as improved Medicaid coverage. More details of the bill can be found here. These expansions are important because new news has now emerged that cancer survivors have higher rates of unemployment.
On the research end, we can all thank Senator Arlen Specter for being instrumental in increasing the NIH budget by $10 billion (a 34% increase), including 15,000 newly funded grants. Senator, if I could fly to D.C. to give you a big thank you hug, I would! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I think the Association of American Medical Colleges explains the implications of this increase best, via Medical News Today: "Ongoing bold and visionary NIH funding will benefit all Americans through new treatments and cures and contribute to our economic strength by creating skilled and high-paying jobs, new products and industries and improved technologies."