Feds hit New Jersey with $350M in cuts to state health programs
By: Scott Fallon
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
...... New Jersey is set to lose $350 million in federal funding for health program,s under a decision by the Trump administration to pull back billions sent to states that was meant to help track infectious diseases, provide mental health counseling and fight drug addiction, officials said Thursday. [03/27/2025]
.....
It is not known how many jobs would be affected at the state Department of Health, the state Department of Human Services, local health departments or contractors hired by the state. But Governor Phil Murphy said the cuts would cerate "an unfulfillable void in funding that will have disastrous ramifications for our most vulnerable neighbors."
..... The federal Department of Health and Human Services said the $11.4 billion cuts to states targeted COVID-19 programs that are not needed. The department is overseen by Helaht and Human Service Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
....."The COVID-19 pandemic is over., and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago," the agency said in a statement.
..... Murphy and governors in other stats said that money is used for many more purposes outside of COVID monitoring, testing and vaccinations.
..... In New Jersey those funds have been used to help track influenza, RSV, measles, tuberculosis and bird flu outbreaks build the public health infrastructure that was lacking during the pandemic when health officials struggled to contain the virus. The money has also been used to treat opioid addiction and provide counseling mental health services. "It will make it harder for our state to combat the deadly threat of fentanyl, which the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed as a priority," Murphy said in a statement.
..... After a surge in recent years, New Jersey has seen overdose deaths drop to 2,816 in 2023 from 3,171 in 2022, according to data released this week. [03/24/2025]
..... Murphy said the state may sue the administration over the cuts.
..... New Jersey is already bracing for major cuts to the $14 billion it receives from the federal government to fund Medicaid - helaht insurance for low-income residents that funds everything from pediatric visits to the majority of nursing home patients.
..... New Jersey scientists are also set to lose some of the more than $400 million in annual medical research grants from the National Institutes of Health due to budget cuts. The cuts to state funding come as 10,000 works at the federal Department of Health and Human Services are expected to laid off. The cuts will also close about five of the department's 10 regional offices, Kennedy said Thursday. [[03/27/2025]
..... The Food and Drug Administration will terminate 3,500 full-time employees. the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to reduce its workforce by 2,400 employees. The National Institutes of Helaht will terminate 1,200 employees and CMS, which oversees Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, will lose 300 employees.
..... "This decision is not just a loss of jobs - it is a district threat to the approval of new medicines, our response to immediate public health crisis, and the future of American biomedical research and scientific innovation," said Stephen C. Jameson, president of the American Association of Immunologists.