Trump Administration Abruptly Cuts Billions From State Well being Providers

The Division of Well being and Human Providers has abruptly canceled greater than $12 billion in federal grants to states that had been getting used for monitoring infectious ailments, psychological well being providers, dependancy therapy and different pressing well being points.

The cuts are more likely to additional hamstring state well being departments, that are already underfunded and battling competing calls for from power ailments, resurgent infections like syphilis and rising threats like hen flu.

State well being departments started receiving notices on Monday night that the funds, which had been allotted in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, had been being terminated, efficient instantly.

“No extra actions will be performed, and no extra prices could also be incurred, because it pertains to these funds,” the notices stated.

For some, the impact was instant.

In Lubbock, Texas, public well being officers have obtained orders to cease work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, in accordance with Katherine Wells, the town’s director of public well being.

On Tuesday, some state well being departments had been making ready to put off dozens of epidemiologists and information scientists. Others, together with Texas, Maine and Rhode Island, had been nonetheless scrambling to grasp the affect of the cuts earlier than taking any motion.