A program that provides free health care to the first survivors and survivors of World Trade Center terrorist attacks has been agitation for months, with cut, restored and reduced services as part of the Trump administration‘s “Restructuring” of the Federal Health Department.
After the most recent cuts, groups representing survivors and even American democratic senators say they have no clarity on how the program will continue to provide advantages.
“It is a bureaucratic cruelty,” said Michael Barasch, a lawyer who represents thousands of first speakers and survivors of the attacks. Barasch himself was an office employee in downtown Manhattan on September 11.
“You have people with (post -traumatic stress disorder), which was diagnosed from all the parts of the body they picked up, all this trauma – these people are counting on treatment. Can you imagine their level of anxiety? Their level of anxiety soar, ”said Barasch.
Barasch said other customers undergoing cancer treatment and the search for annual controls do not know if the upcoming visits will be covered. He said that customers asked, “Who will pay my chemotherapy?
The World Trade Center health program is managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as part of its workers’ safety branch, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh). The two agencies, which are organized under the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS), underwent a serious attack by the Trump administration.
Billionaire Elon Musk and the Secretary in the United States of Health, Robert F Kennedy Jrcut approximately a quarter of the HHS workforce, or around 20,000 people from the agency of 82,000 people. The most recent cuts, which take place on April Fool’s Day, hit the CDC and the Niosh particularly hard – although there is still no accounting of the exact administration cuts.
“The chaos surrounding the WTC health program is completely unacceptable for the thousands of survivors of September 11 and the first stakeholders who risked their lives at the darkest time of our country”, “,” Kirsten Gillibrandsaid an American Democratic senator at the Guardian.
“This is completely disrespectful towards the survivors and the September 11 stakeholders who protected our nation when we were attacked and now suffers from potentially fatal health ramifications from this day.”
The lack of information left the survivors and the first stakeholders with “no information” to find out if their appointments – for cancer processing, mental illness or basic checks – can continue, said Barasch.
“There is such chaos because there is no information,” said Barasch. “There is no transparency.”
Nearly 3,000 people died immediately after the September 11 terrorist attacks. James Zadroga, who Died in 2006was a New York police officer who was largely considered to be the first death directly attributable to toxins released by attacks.
The World Trade Center health program, the victim compensation fund and the health register were intended to provide care and remuneration to people like Zadroga, with an eponymous law that has established a remuneration plan, a free research and health care program for the first stakeholders and the victims of the attacks. The program was promulgated in 2011 by Barack Obama and forced to take place until 2090.
In FebruaryThe so-called “Government Department of Efficiency” (DOGE) has reduced around 10,000 people from HHS staff, including two major research subsidies and 16 people from the World Trade Center health program for around 90 people. More workers have taken buybacks supported by DOGE. In the middle of the Bipartite outcry, 11 workers and the two subsidies were then restored, according to the New York Times.
April 1Kennedy then launched a second cup of 10,000 people in HHS, which reduced almost two thirds of Nisoh workforce. Overall, 2,400 people had to be cut off from the CDC, with Nearly 900 coming from Niosh alone.
Among the cuts, there was the entire World Trade Center health program, including its administrator, Dr. James Howard, who was appointed during the first Trump administration. After a second round of Carté Bipartite, including republican lobbying in the White House, Howard was reinstated on weekends. However, the fate of its staff remains unknown.
“How many people have been rehired with Dr. Howard? You know as well as I am,” said Barasch.
“We know that Dr Howard was rehired, but in the end, he remained uncertain,” said Gillibrand. “The Trump administration uses the heroes of our country as political pawns while critical questions surrounding funding and the programs endowment cuts remain.”
The Guardian contacted the Republican representative Andrew Garbarino, who directed the Republicans who put pressure on the White House. He did not respond to requests for information on the sections and rehabilitation of the program.