Asthma Sufferers May Get Some Relief

President Clinton will ask Congress for $68 million to attack childhood asthma and $40 million to subsidize training of pediatricians by children’s hospitals, a White House official said. Both initiatives will be included in the proposed fiscal 2000 federal budget that Clinton will submit next week. The asthma plan, to be announced today at the White House, was billed as the “first-ever comprehensive, administration-wide strategy” to fight the disease. Most of the money--$50 million--would be used for competitive state grants to identify and treat poor children served by Medicaid who have asthma.