Hard Times for the National Centers

IN 1973, Franz Ingelfinger called attention to the precarious budgetary support of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).1 The administration had proposed a budget of $22.8 million, and the House of Representatives had concurred, but some members of the Senate urged that it be cut to $19.3 million. Calling attention to the nation's annual expenditures on health care, which at that time exceeded $80 billion, Dr. Ingelfinger commented, "What an incongruity: we bear health-care costs that in their size and growth stagger everyone, but yet Washington is hesitant to allocate 1/4000 of the $80 billion to obtain facts that . . .