President Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have moved to slash funding for dependancy therapy packages and analysis, saying the cash ought to as a substitute be spent on efforts to “Make America Wholesome Once more.”
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Photographs/Getty Photographs North America
State and county public well being departments and nonprofit teams are reeling after the Trump administration introduced abrupt cancellation and revocation of roughly $11.4 billion in COVID-era funding for grants linked to dependancy, psychological well being and different packages.
“That is chopping issues off within the center whereas individuals are really doing the work,” mentioned Keith Humphreys, an dependancy coverage researcher at Stanford College, who additionally volunteers doing hurt discount work with individuals in dependancy. He warned the transfer might set off layoffs and therapy disruptions.
“Providers can be dropped within the center. Bang, the clinic is closing. It is a brutal technique to make these cuts,” Humphreys mentioned.
The federal grant funding had been scheduled to run via September 2025. In an announcement despatched to NPR, a spokesperson with the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers mentioned it made sense to freeze this system instantly.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will not waste billions of taxpayer {dollars} responding to a non-existent pandemic that Individuals moved on from years in the past,” the assertion mentioned, including that the Trump administration will refocus funding on America’s “persistent illness epidemic.”
Drug overdoses linked to fentanyl and different substances have declined sharply lately, thanks partly to a surge in funding for dependancy therapy throughout the Biden administration. However road medication nonetheless kill greater than 84,000 individuals within the U.S. yearly, in response to the newest knowledge from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
President Donald Trump has made fentanyl smuggling a high concern throughout the opening weeks of his administration, extending an emergency declaration linked to the highly effective road opioid.
However his crew has additionally quickly slashed the variety of federal researchers centered on dependancy and Trump pardoned a tech mogul convicted of constructing a “darkish net” platform used to visitors illicit medication.
The Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Providers Administration can also be being merged into a brand new group, known as the Administration for a Wholesome America (AHA), as a part of a restructuring of HHS that is anticipated to remove 20,000 federal staff.
The transfer to rescind funds that embody addiction-care grants drew criticism from specialists who warned progress decreasing overdose deaths could possibly be reversed.
“DOGE is now actively reducing funding geared toward decreasing overdose deaths by clawing again cash from states,” wrote Regina LaBelle, an knowledgeable on drug coverage at Georgetown College who served within the Biden administration in a submit on social media. “With overdose deaths nonetheless exceeding 80,000 yearly, is DOGE declaring victory?”
In an announcement despatched to NPR, a spokesman for Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine mentioned they’re “awaiting agency particulars earlier than commenting” on the cuts.
Some Democratic leaders throughout the U.S. condemned the transfer.
“Senselessly ripping away this funding Congress offered will undermine our state’s skill to guard households from infectious illnesses like measles and chicken flu and to assist individuals get the psychological well being care and substance use therapy they want,” mentioned U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state, in an announcement.
She mentioned the lack of $160 million in federal funds designated to be used in her state might price “greater than 200 jobs” in public and non-profit well being organizations.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul mentioned her state would lose roughly $300 million in funding, a lot of it earmarked for county well being departments in rural areas.
“At a time when New York is going through an ongoing opioid epidemic, a number of confirmed instances of measles and an ongoing psychological well being disaster, these cuts can be devastating,” Hochul mentioned. “There isn’t any state on this nation that has the monetary assets to backfill the huge federal funding cuts.”
A spokesperson for Colorado’s Behavioral Well being Administration mentioned $250 million in federal cuts to her state would have an effect on as many as 60 packages and will put affected person in danger.
“In so many instances, these are life-saving packages and providers, and we fear for the wellbeing of those that have come to depend on this help,” spokeswoman Allie Eliot, wrote in an electronic mail to Colorado Public Radio.
Of their assertion to NPR, HHS officers downplayed the impacts of the cuts and mentioned most grants being rescinded fund outdated packages linked to the pandemic, together with efforts to “deal with COVID-19 well being disparities amongst populations at high-risk and underserved, together with racial and ethnic minority populations.”
Tom Wolf, an dependancy activist in San Francisco who has been crucial of Democratic approaches to deal with the overdose disaster, mentioned he stays broadly supportive of Trump’s coverage concepts.
“There are specific facets of what he is doing that I believe are good. For me it is about getting issues carried out,” Wolf mentioned.
However he additionally voiced concern concerning the tempo of change and the danger that efficient dependancy therapy packages could possibly be defunded at a time when tens of 1000’s of individuals within the U.S. are nonetheless dying from deadly overdoses every year.
“Are they stopping to take a look at the efficacy of these packages?” Wolf mentioned.
Habit specialists informed NPR they’re now bracing for what many imagine can be deep cuts to Medicaid funding, which offers the most important single supply of insurance coverage protection for drug and alcohol therapy nationwide.
“It’s totally onerous to take a look at the finances framework created by Republicans and picture a state of affairs apart from Medicaid being minimize severely,” Stanford College’s Keith Humphreys mentioned. “It is a scary prospect. That can be extraordinarily painful for households going through dependancy.”
