HEALTHCARE/OBAMCARE(ACA): “State officials and public-health groups are pushing the Senate to preserve billions of dollars that go to local health programs, from vaccines to antismoking campaigns, that would be halted under the House Republican bill to topple the Affordable Care Act.
Officials from states led by both parties are rattled because the House-approved health-care overhaul would end almost $1 billion in annual payments to a prevention program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The money is largely doled out as grants for state and local health prevention and outreach efforts…
The CDC program, launched in 2010 as part of the ACA, was aimed at helping states develop new ways to reduce disease and curb costs. Over time, the money appropriated to the CDC has increasingly become a core part of state health-department budgets, health officials say.
The program, known as the Prevention and Public Health Fund, helps states maintain programs that prevent tobacco use, flag disease outbreaks and provide vaccines to the uninsured.”
-Stephanie Armour, Michelle Hackman, and Betsy McKay, “States Rally to Save Public-Health Program Slated for Cuts in Overhaul Bill,” The Wall Street Journal online, June 13, 2017 07:00am