A coalition of prosecutors basic from 23 states has sued the Trump administration over its decision to rescind$ 11 billion in federal health financing, arguing that the move is illegal and harm public health across the country.
The lawsuit has been filed in a provincial judge in Rhode Island.
According to the media company AP, the maneuver aims to prevent the administration from pulling up funds that were previously allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic for testing, vaccination, mental health services and addiction treatment.
The state involved in the complaint include New York, California, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia.
” Slashing this money then will change our improvement on the opioid crisis, put our mental health systems into chaos, and left hospitals struggling to care for people”, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement Tuesday.
As per the news agency Reuters, the US department of health and human services ( HHS) defended the cuts, stating that” the Covid-19 pandemic is over” and that taxpayer dollars should no longer be spent on what the agency described as a “non-existent pandemic”.
The funding in question was being used by states not only for pandemic-related efforts but also for tracking other infectious diseases such as measles and bird flu, as well as supporting mental health services and addiction treatment programs, reported Reuters.
Local and state health departments have warned that the sudden withdrawal of funds will lead to massive job losses, with some infectious disease teams expected to lose up to 90 % of their staff.
