The Donald Trump administration has decided to take back more than $12 billion in healthcare funding. This has put state and local health offices in a tough spot, as they now have to figure out a new way to manage. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has also said that they want to cut 10,000 jobs from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This money was a safety net for important programs that help control sicknesses that spread quickly, help infectious disease control, substance abuse treatment, and public health preparedness.
Axios reported that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has said they’re taking away $11.4 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is a big chunk of money meant for keeping diseases in check and preparing for health crises. On top of that, they’re also canceling $1 billion in special funding that was given to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services administration during the time of COVID-19.
Trump administration axes COVID funding for state, community health departments
The CDC is terminating $11.4 billion in grants and contracts awarded to health departments for COVID-19 response.https://t.co/uYUhT8SVCE
Photo: Virginia Guard Public Affairs / Flickr cc pic.twitter.com/a0Wrlwlj49
— CIDRAP (@CIDRAP) March 27, 2025
A spokesperson for HHS defended this decision, saying, “The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic.” RFK Jr’s changes at HHS are likely to result in a significant impact on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), potentially leading to the loss of around 3,500 permanent employees.
Many who work in public health are not too happy about this. They say that even though we might not be in the thick of the COVID crisis anymore, this money is still really important for the long-term fight against diseases and supporting those struggling with addiction.
The HHS, too, has remained tight-lipped about how Kennedy’s cuts will actually help. It has just said this “will not impact Medicare and Medicaid services.”
The impact is becoming increasingly evident. Down in Virginia, the state’s health department is experiencing a tough time, resorting to letting go of people, with community health workers, nurses, and epidemiologists being handed pink slips. According to Axios, the very next morning after these folks were told, they found themselves unable to log into their work computers – talk about a cold shoulder.
Moving over to Texas, the city of Lubbock is facing a real pickle with measles. They were in the middle of trying to control the spread. Three grants they relied on got yanked away. Katrice Wells, NYC public health director, is pretty concerned, as she believes and told the New York Times: “This will leave us with fewer resources to contain future outbreaks.”
Ben Edwards, a physician in Lubbock who treats some patients in Seminole, including a family with measles, recently released an episode of his podcast about the outbreak, in which he described mass infection as “God’s version of measles immunization.”https://t.co/FsXa8i4ehw
— FFRF (@FFRF) March 3, 2025
Meanwhile, in places like Maine and Rhode Island, they’re still trying to figure out how hard they’ve been hit. You see, a lot of these state health departments are pretty much hanging by a thread financially, with a huge chunk of their people and programs only staying afloat thanks to grants from the big guys up in Washington. So, when that money dries up, jobs disappear, and the help they provide to communities goes with it.
The backlash to this decision has been swift and strong.
Democratic politicians are upset, saying it’s a careless and harmful choice. One of them, Sen. Patty Murray from Washington, didn’t hold back. She said, “This is another destructive move by an administration intent on breaking government with no discernible strategy or plan—making our communities less safe in the process.”
Dr. Thomas Frieden, who used to be director of the CDC, agrees that this is a big mistake. He says: “State and local health departments are already underfunded. Cutting these grants will only worsen their struggles.”
While the Donald Trump administration says these cuts are to “Make America Healthy Again,” experts think that the grants are still needed for other public health needs right now.
These cuts are not just about COVID-19. They’re also going to affect programs that help with other serious health problems, like people getting addicted to opioids. Now, states won’t have as much money to help prevent this and to give treatment.
The CDC is worried about new sicknesses that could spread quickly, like bird flu. With less money, it might be harder for them to keep an eye on these things and stop them from getting worse. If local health departments don’t have enough money, they might miss out on important information that could help us all stay safe.
Take Virginia, for example. They’ve been using these grants to pay almost half of the people who work on keeping everyone healthy. Now, they’re in a tough spot because they might not be able to do their jobs as well. When a disease starts to spread, it could take longer to figure out what’s happening and to do something about it, which is scary for everyone.
It’s hard to say what’s going to happen next. Some states might try to get more money through different means, like asking for it from Congress or moving money around in their budgets. But replacing billions of dollars is not easy.
The experts are saying that without changing this decision, some really important programs might have to be stopped, which would mean that people who really need help with their health won’t get it. People who care about this are asking Congress to step in, but it’s not clear if they will.
Public health workers wonder if they’ll have jobs and communities worrying that their health services might slow down. The big question is whether these cuts will be fixed or if this is just the start of the government giving less money to healthcare.
