Doge Cuts Force County Health and Nutrition Programs to close

From ChristenCalmness

This story was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Earlier this year, Selena Penya spent her days helping the residents of Kern County learn how to lead a healthier life through eating and fitness hours. It was part of a public health team focused on reducing high obesity and heart disease rates.

But in July, the county eliminated the program, citing the loss of $ 12.5 million in federal public health funding. It was early in a series of cascading cuts in Kern’s health programs this year. Other cities make such decisions.

In the country, district health and human services have made a significant reduction in bread and oil programs as a result of the reduction and freezing of the financing of the Trump administration. Counts Kern, San Luis Obyspo, Orange and Los Angeles, as well as the city of Long Beach, are among those who reduce health services. The budget crisis of the state and the subsequent redundancies of public health have also strained local resources.

California cities and counties are closed public health clinics, eliminated family planning programs, stopped dental services, reduced the availability of immunizations, creating freezing and fired dozens of local health workers. At the end of the month, because of cuts in The so -called one big Trump accountmost counties Health departments will close the dining programs Focused on teaching low-income families how to stretch their dollars for food printing and cook healthier food.

Kern has the highest percentage of diabetes-related deaths in the countryAnd 78% of adults are overweight or obese, according to state data. Pena, who was born and raised there, saw first -hand how poverty, lack of education and language barriers contribute to poor health. That is why she was excited to do a job that helped people like her mother to start controlling their health.

The irony is not lost by local health leaders that while the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., vocally pushes a program aimed at leading causes of chronic illness such as obesity and heart disease, local programs for dealing with these problems and others are eradication. His recent ”Again made our children healthy“The strategy report called a bad diet and a lack of physical activity as the main engines of chronic diseases among children.

“It is not good enough to say that this is important,” says Bernadet Boden-Albala, Dean of the School of Population and Public Health at UC Irvine. “They talk about nutrition, but where is the money for nutrition?

Health departments are well positioned to improve the results of community health, Boden-Albala said, as their services are often aimed at improving systemic barriers that make it difficult for people to be healthy. They focus on nutritional insecurity, health education and access, prevention and monitoring of disease, mental health and safety promotion.

The work has a preventive nature and without IT communities will have more illnesses, higher costs and less health care opportunities, said Health and Health Director and Long Beach Alison King’s human services.

“When public health funding is reduced, prevention work is often the first to be affected,” King said.

Long Beach has lost nearly $ 4 million in federal grants, with the largest reduction affecting its HIV prevention program and sexually transmitted infections.

These policies “will be reflected until the end of this administration, if not above that,” says Arthur Reingold, a professor of epidemiology at UC Berkeley School of Public Health and a global infectious disease expert.

Dog reduces billions of dollars for public health

Many of the abbreviations of the local health services began in March when Elon Musk, then adviser to the Ministry of Government Efficiency, terminate more than $ 11 billion in public health funding across the countryS California has lost nearly $ 1 billion.

These abbreviations focused on the money that health departments used to strengthen their Covid-19 response by shortening laboratory programs for laboratory, community and immunization programs. For their part, many counties hired dozens of workers in the field of public health and managed to expand other services.

In some cases, the grants were intended to continue until 2027, when their sharp termination left the counties to shake.

“We couldn’t even prepare for the end of this funding. It was so catastrophic for us,” says BRIN KARIGAN, director of public health at Kern County. “We received a notification the day after the suspension order was effective.”

California has brought a case In order to prevent the Trump administration and a redundancies The Federal Judge ordered in May that the money should be restored While the case is playing. But in many ways, the tractor between federal cuts and state litigation still leaves local authorities without choice, except to eliminate the services. If the courts eventually stand up to the Trump administration, the Counts will have to pay the federal government’s money.

“At the end of the day, all responsibility and all the risk is in the county and we are talking about millions of dollars,” Carrigan said.

That is why programs such as the PEña healthy habits team are discontinued.

Her team – called “Know your numbers” – check the blood pressure of residents, glucose, cholesterol and body mass, before providing seven weeks of free diet and exercise to show them how their number improves.

“Our health should be a priority. We must want to fight the things that make us unhealthy: diseases, tobacco, unhealthy foods,” says Penya, a member of the International Union of Office of Office 721. “This is discouraging when the government does not want to take care of the health of the public.”

California counties eliminate teeth, other programs

In Kern County, the department is also forced to close a clinic serving rural agricultural communities, to suspend most mobile clinical services, to reduce meetings in its main Bakersfield Clinic by 67%and to remove 35 jobs.

More than 170 miles south, Orange County Director Veronica Kelly has dealt with the same difficult decisions. Public health “has not been overall for decades,” Kelly said, but early federal terminations are particularly raw. They cost Orange County $ 13.7 million over the next two years.

In May, the county closed its emergency dental clinic. A month later, the Clinic for Children’s Clinic and Family Planning also closed. A federal program to support new mothers with diapers, breastfeeding and food maintenance is also reduced. In October, the county will lose an additional $ 4 million to combat the obesity and uncertainty of food.

“If we take care of the health of Americans and the people who live here and the health of the residents of Orange County, then we have to put more focus on financing these services,” Kelly said.

The department has tried to make reductions in the areas where other community providers can absorb the patient’s load and have the least impact on access to services, Kelly said. But the county is not blind to the likelihood of more abbreviations in the coming years, as federal support for Medicaid is significantly reduced.

Most counties rely on Medicaid to provide mental health services and treat the abuse of stationary substances. It also helps to pay for public health clinics, where people can get immunizations and testing and treatment of sexually transmitted infections. The counties that run public hospitals face even more uncertainty.

Medicaid Public Hospitals in Los Angeles

In Los Angeles County, the Health Service Department is designing it will have an annual deficit of $ 1.85 billion by 2028-29. The department operates four public hospitals and 80% of its patients rely on Medicaid for health insurance.

At a A recent meeting of district supervisorsThe Chief Executive Officer of Fessia Davenport has said that federal cuts are likely to lead to thousands of abbreviations and can accelerate the closure of a district hospital.

There are no current plans for closing hospitals, said Jorge Orosko, CEO of La General Medical Center, but the department has created a freezing of hiring. County employees are also considering consolidation of services that can be provided in numerous hospitals such as radiation oncology and delaying maintenance and improvement projects.

However, the deficit of this magnitude will be impossible to completely absorb the county.

“Efforts to tighten the belt and cost effectiveness are really not enough to make $ 1.85 billion,” Oroko said. “It’s really catastrophic.”

The Ministry of Public Health of La County earlier this year also lost $ 45 million in federal subsidies and created a freezing of hiring.

Orosko said the reduction of the health safety network would eventually affect everyone in LA County. One third of all cases of injuries were taken to a district hospital, he added.

“Our network safety system really serves a huge segment of our population here in La General,” Orosko said. “So the impact of the reduction of services, the impact of the reduction of the budget will be felt not only of the most vulnerable, but also our whole community.”

Supported by the California Foundation for Health (CHCF), which works to ensure that people have access to the necessary care when they need it, at a price they can afford. Visit www.chcf.org to learn more.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.