Public Health Service Grants to Construct Health Facilities

Abstract

GRANT PROGRAMS designed to stimulate and support the building of health facilities have grown markedly in terms of both kind and volume of construction aided. In 1946 the first Public Health Service construction grant program, the Hospital Survey and Construction (Hill-Burton) Act, was passed. The initial authorization was $75 million for fiscal year 1948. Until the enactment of the Health Research Facilities Act in 1956, the Hill-Burton program was the only health facilities construction grant program. However, several individual largescale construction grants were made by the National Institutes of Health in those years. Between 1948 and 1952 approximately $18.6 million was provided for grants for construction of various research facilities. By 1957 there were two construction grant programs-the Hill-Burton program, which received that year an appropriation of close to $124 million, and the health research facilities program, which was allocated $30 million for its first year of funding. In 1963 the number of construction grant programs was boosted from two to eight with the enactment of the Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963 and the Health Professions Educational Assistance Act of 1963. By fiscal year 1965, the six programs under these two laws had provided $165 million in grants. The most recent construction grant program passed by Congress is the Allied Health Profession Personnel Training Act of 1966. The first appropriation for grants under this legislation, expected to amount to $3 million, is anticipated for fiscal year 1968. The number of construction grant programs has increased from 1 in 1946 to 10 in 1965. In terms of dollars they will have grown more than eightfold, from $75 million to $620.5 million, by fiscal year 1968 (table 1).