Policy Corner: July 19, 2019

BIAA Supports Funding for Disabled Veteran Program

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA) signed a letter of support with the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD) Veterans Task Force requesting funding from the Senate Appropriations Committee for the Disabled Veteran Program. The program was funded in the House-passed FY 2020 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. The Disabled Veteran Program would focus on the employment challenges of veterans with disabilities by working with businesses and the workforce development system to promote hiring and retention of veterans with disabilities through technical assistance and collaboration.

House of Representatives Votes to Repeal Cadillac Tax

The House voted Wednesday to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) “Cadillac Tax” on high-cost health plans, removing part of the health law opposed by many in both parties. The wide bipartisan vote of 419-6 illustrates how the tax is one of the few areas of the ACA that has opposition across the political aisle. The tax was designed to help keep health care costs down by discouraging overly-generous “Cadillac” health insurance plans. Both unions and employers, however, opposed the tax, helping to set up a broad coalition against it. Repealing the tax will cost the government the hefty sum of $196.9 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The Cadillac Tax had never actually gone into effect, given that Congress repeatedly delayed it when it came close to taking effect. The vote Wednesday would fully repeal the tax, though it remains unclear whether the Senate will also bring the bill up for a vote.

CDC Awards $7.5M to Injury Control Research Centers

Earlier this week, the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded $7.5 million over the next five years to nine Injury Control Research Centers (ICRCs). 

Research through ICRCs will identify risk and protective factors that present opportunities for injury and violence prevention strategies, and develop and evaluate effective interventions and methods to translate those interventions into public use. ICRCs are an integral component of CDC’s mission to prevent injuries and violence through science and action.

Over the past 30 years, ICRCs have served as a conduit to bring the technical expertise of a wide variety of partners to communities addressing the public health burden of injury and violence. Specifically, ICRCs have engaged universities and medical centers in coordinated efforts to conduct meaningful research and provide expert, scholarly knowledge that has informed and strengthened injury and violence prevention efforts. ICRCs have successfully trained hundreds of injury prevention researchers and practitioners and have also developed longstanding, functional, and productive partnerships with these practitioners and organizations. The following ICRCs have been selected to receive funds:

• Columbia University
• Emory University
• Johns Hopkins University
• Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
• University of Iowa
• University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Washington

BIAA gratefully acknowledges the Centre for Neuro Skills and Avanir Pharmaceuticals for their support for legislative action.