Kentucky could lose $148.8 million in funding slated for childhood vaccines, suicide prevention, community health workers and addiction treatment services after the Trump administration announced it would cancel the state’s COVID-19 health care grants.
A spokesperson for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services said the funding cuts would delay some childhood vaccine orders and bi-annual vaccine provider re-enrollment. She said it would also end “key vaccination outreach, education and service programs,” preventing mobile vaccination services in rural and underserved areas.
“Most of the funds go to local health departments across Kentucky and Community Mental Health Centers, as well as other local community partners,” said spokesperson Kendra Steele in an email.
The cuts will also affect the Purple Star Program, which supports military-connected children, and the delivery of addiction treatment services. She said the Trump administration also eliminates a grant to develop community health workers across the state, and affects grants supporting staffing at youth drop-in centers and call centers for the 988 suicide prevention and crisis hotline.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department announced this week it would cancel around $11.4 billion in COVID-19 related funding across the country because the pandemic is over. Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear argues that is not a legal reason to end a contract, and said he intends to challenge the cancellation if necessary.
“These are promises that the federal government made, and they're doing things like helping us have more people at our health clinics,” Beshear said. “Those dollars have been appropriated by a law that Congress passed, and a president or an executive can't say, ‘we're just not going to do it and we're going to cancel them.’”
The nationwide cuts include funding for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services and addiction treatment. Officials under new health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. deemed the spending a “waste” since they said the pandemic is over.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” the federal health department said in the termination notice.
Beshear said he is also concerned about the 10,000 federal workers laid off from the federal health department, calling it a “really bad idea” amid national health crises including bird flu and significant measles outbreak — including one confirmed case in a Kentucky adult.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
