The Ministry of Health and Social Services suddenly canceled more than $ 12 billion in federal subsidies to states that were used to follow infectious diseases, mental health services, treatment of drug addiction and other urgent health problems.
Cups are likely to continue the United States health services, which are Already underfunded And fight with Competing requirements for chronic diseases, resurgence infections such as syphilis and emerging threats such as bird flu.
State health services began to receive opinions on Monday evening that the funds, which were allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic, were ended, with effect immediately.
“No additional activity can be carried out and no additional cost can be engaged, with regard to these funds,” said the opinions.
For some, the effect was immediate.
In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials were ordered to stop the work supported by three subsidies that have helped finance the response to the expansion of the measles epidemic, according to Katherine Wells, the city Director of public health.
On Tuesday, some state health services were preparing to dismiss dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists. Others, including Texas, Maine and Rhode Island, have always tried to understand the impact of the cuts before taking measures.
During interviews, state health officials predicted that thousands of employees from the Ministry of Health and Contractual Workers could lose their jobs nationally. Some predicted the loss up to 90% of the staff of certain teams of infectious diseases.
“The reality is that when we move funding for public health systems, systems simply do not simply have the capacity, because they are chronically underfunded over the decades,” said Dr. Umair Shah, who was secretary to the state of Washington State until January.
The news of the cuts was reported for the first time by NBC.
Abandoned subsidies include around $ 11.4 billion from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as about $ 1 billion in drug addiction and mental health services, known as Samhsa
The congress authorized money for state public health programs in the context of cocovated rescue bills. The funds were indeed initially used to test and vaccination against the coronavirus, as well as to combat health disparities in high -risk populations.
But last year, Money has also been authorized to be devoted to other pressing public health problems, including tests and the surveillance of other respiratory viruses, a range of vaccines for children or uninsured adults and preparation for health emergencies.
On Tuesday, Andrew Nixon, spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Services, said in a statement: “The Pandemic COVID-19 is over, and the HHS will no longer waste billions of dollars from taxpayers who respond to an nonexistent pandemic that the Americans moved years ago.”
The cancellations of subsidies and contracts by the Trump administration through the government have led to numerous prosecution of states and non -profit groups, which are still in their early days. The health subsidies in question have been authorized and appropriate by the Congress, and their dismissal can lead to new proceedings. Several states have said they explored legal options.
“We will continue to assess all the impacts and are in contact with the prosecutor’s office and the 49 other states faced with similar challenges,” Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts said in a statement.
Excess funds had been a boon for public health services short of money seeking to modernize their creaky systems.
For example, Alaska had applied some of the funds to buy laboratory equipment and update electronic files, so that state epidemiologists would no longer need to fill the details of patients manually. Other states built systems to connect the monitoring data for hospitals and laboratories to health services.
Object data systems Entering the answer In many states of COVID and MPOX epidemics.
“We had the opportunity to update some of these things that should desperately be updated to have a more effective public health response,” said Dr. Anne Zink, who resigned from his job as a chief of Alaska in August.
But now, with reduced subsidies, the project will remain unfinished and the taxes invested so far can be wasted, she said.
In some states, funds have also helped to study chronic diseases, the presence of which increases the risk of serious results and deaths of the coronavirus.
The Samhsa funds were not intended for coated programs, and they were intended to approach mental health and addiction problems. The pandemic led to generalized solidity, boredom and anxiety, factors which contributed to an increase in overdose deaths which reached just over 111,000 in 2022, against around 70,000 in 2019.
The number of overdose peaks fell to around 87,000 during the 12 -month period which ended in October, according to the most recent federal data. Some of the strongest decrees were in states such as Virginia-Western, Michigan and Tennessee, which all strongly supported President Trump in the presidential election.
Brian Hepburn, executive director of directors of the National States Association Mental Association, said many states had also applied their funds to build their 988 suicide lines and other crisis services. But states have understood that funding was subject to time constraints, so few used it to finance current services, he said.
In Colorado, additional funds from the short time are supported approximately 60 programs, including those of intervention teams in the event of a crisis; services for adults with serious mental illness and for young adults with early start to psychotic disorders; And peers support advisers for people convalescence of drug addiction and alcohol. The Colorado had hired its 31.5 million dollars remaining in grants to support the providers of these services.
“In many cases, these are rescue programs and services, and we are concerned about the well-being of those who came to count on this support,” said Dannette R. Smith, Commissioner of Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration.
Samhsa’s subsidies were to expire in September, but certain CDC’s coordinated subsidies had to last until 2026 and 2027.
States were then prepared for the expiration of subsidies, but “so that it occurs early and without notice is obviously extremely disruptive,” said a state official of the State, who asked not to be identified because they were not allowed to speak to the media.
Some states, such as Kentucky and South Carolina, are counting strongly on federal funding to manage their health programs, while others, such as New Jersey and California, depend on it. However, most people and data systems following disease epidemics are funded by the CDC
The brutality of the decision has left “no possibility of transitioning people to other means, no opportunity, even for a government government to say:” In our next budgetary cycle, we will add in the number of X positions, “said an in -depth responsible for the impact, who asked not to be appointed because they feared the reprisals of the Trump administration.
“There are millions of dollars that have been spent which, essentially, projects will never be able to be completed,” said the official. “It’s like throwing money out the window; it’s total waste.”
Teddy Rosenbluth Contributed reports.