Cutting federal medical research is short-sighted blow to America’s health and innovation: op-ed

Southern Research
Courtesy of Southern Research.Southern Research.

This is a guest opinion column

When I first read that the Trump administration had rescinded a $44 million biotechnology grant earmarked for Birmingham, Alabama, I felt more than disappointment — I felt alarmed. As a physician who’s practiced medicine for four decades and a proud son of Birmingham, I understand all too well that losing this funding meant a significant negative change for the trajectory of equitable, data-driven health innovation across America.

That grant was not just a line item in a federal budget. It was a lifeline. It was designed to power genomic testing access across rural and underserved parts of Alabama through the Catalyst Program — a partnership between UAB and Southern Research — anchoring our state in the future of precision medicine. In a country where chronic illness costs us $3.2 trillion annually and where access to care remains staggeringly unequal, rescinding this investment is more than fiscally irresponsible — it’s morally indefensible.

But this attack on the health and longevity of the poor doesn’t stop there. Congress is now advancing a reconciliation bill that compounds the damage. It proposes drastic cuts and constraints that will ripple through every corner of the medical field. These include:

  • Significant cuts to Medicaid that, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, could leave more than 8 million Americans newly uninsured.
  • Borrowing caps on federal student loans for medical and graduate programs—choking off access to the very education pipeline we rely on to train the next generation of physicians.
  • Continued Medicare physician payment cuts, including a 2.8% cut locked in for 2025 and meager annual increases thereafter—threatening the sustainability of surgical and specialty practices across the country.

I trained in general surgery and urology at Montefiore Medical Center in New York and later served on faculty at Columbia University and Harlem Hospital. There, I saw firsthand how delayed care, poor access to screenings, and lack of diverse data in research decimated communities. As a urologist I saw firsthand Black men facing prostate cancer being diagnosed too late and underrepresented in clinical trials. That’s why I launched free screening programs across NYC churches and co-founded the Black Health Network to deliver culturally competent health information. Since then I’ve continued working to close these gaps—not widen them.

The $44 million grant targeted precisely the kinds of disparities we must tackle if we’re serious about health equity. It would have enabled free genomic testing, laying the groundwork for personalized, preventive care—before illness strikes. That’s not wasteful spending. That’s wise public investment.

Yet in the name of “efficiency,” this administration and its allies in Congress are gutting programs that have already been vetted and approved, with no regard for regional context, medical need, or long-term consequence. Alabama ranks near the bottom in national health outcomes. We’re battling physician shortages—losing 71,000 doctors a year, while only graduating 21,000. In addition, rural hospitals, serving the poor and uninsured, are closing faster than we can replace them. When federal research dollars vanish, so too do opportunities to reverse these trends.

National studies back this up. A 2023 NIH-funded report found that racial and ethnic health disparities cost the U.S. economy $451 billion in 2018 alone—a 41% increase since 2014. The Deloitte Health Equity Institute warns that if unaddressed, these inequities could cost our healthcare system $1 trillion annually by 2040. This is not just a health crisis—it is an economic one.

And it’s a geopolitical one. America is already ranked 49th globally in healthcare outcomes. Continued disinvestment in medical research, workforce development, and physician payments will not only worsen domestic health but cripple our global competitiveness. If we’re not leading on innovation, we’re falling behind.

Some argue these cuts are necessary to rein in spending. But fiscal responsibility should never come at the cost of human lives. There is a difference between cutting fat and severing arteries. The solution isn’t to retreat from research. It’s to invest smarter, expand representation in clinical trials, and ensure funding reaches the communities most in need.

It’s time for Congress and this administration to reverse course. We must protect and expand federal investments in public health infrastructure—not abandon them. We must prioritize the communities who have long been underrepresented in scientific discovery. And we must treat healthcare not as a partisan battleground, but as the foundation of a just and prosperous society.

Alabama — and America — deserve better.

Dr. Brian Stone, MD, FACS is a board-certified urologist specializing in urologic oncology and general urology, founder of the Black Health Network(1996), and former faculty member at the College of Physicians & Surgeons at Columbia University. He has practiced medicine for 40 years and currently serves on the board of the Catalyst Program in Birmingham, Alabama. He is currently Chief of Staff of Walker Baptist Medical Center (an affiliate of Orlando Health) in Jasper, Alabama.

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