Illinois is losing $125 million in federal grants for disease prevention

Illinois will lose $125 million in promised federal grants for health care this year, funding that had been intended for prevention of measles and other contagious diseases, state officials said Wednesday.

Illinois is not alone as about $11.4 billion in grants, awarded as part of the pandemic response, will be pulled from state and local health departments nationwide, NBC reported.

The decision “to terminate already awarded federal funding will cause immeasurable harm and disruption to the health and safety of the people of Illinois and generate larger expenses in the longer run,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement.

IDPH Director Dr. Sameer Vohra said the move would “set back critical upgrades to our public health labs, technology used to track infectious diseases like H5N1 avian flu and measles, vaccination efforts, and our ongoing work to better prepare for the next public health emergency.”

President Donald Trump’s administration is also freezing $324 million in future grants intended to treat and prevent infectious diseases, state officials said. Along with the IDPH about 97 local public health departments will be impacted.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Director of Communications Andrew Nixon told NBC that “the COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars” responding to a pandemic “that Americans moved on from years ago.”

“HHS is prioritizing funding projects that will deliver on President Trump’s mandate to address our chronic disease epidemic and Make America Healthy Again.”

Separately, the Illinois Department of Human Services announced Wednesday the federal government was slashing about $28 million designated for mental health and substance abuse treatment.