The attack on public health

 Aixos - If the reduction or elimination of certain government health initiatives translate into worse health outcomes, that makes a huge difference ...

• Patient access to care: In many ways, the patient experience has been getting worse. Some experts have warned the HHS cuts — within public health and beyond — will make finding coverage and care even harder for many patients.
• Aging: The problem isn't just that the U.S. population is getting older as a whole; it's that people are also living longer with chronic conditions, and future seniors may be even less healthy than today's. Cutting services that keep people healthy — or at least from becoming more sick — will probably only make this dynamic worse. And some services directly targeted at seniors have been cut.
• Health disparities: Any reduction in public health services will inevitably hit the most vulnerable Americans — who are disproportionately sick — hardest. And some of the departments hit hardest by the HHS cuts serve very at-risk populations, like HIV patients.
• Mental health and drug addiction: States are already suing the Trump administration over its clawback of billions in state funding, arguing that the funding reduction will reverse progress made on the opioid epidemic and threaten crisis intervention, suicide prevention and community-based mental health care.

"The firings will likely make it harder to get care and coverage," said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA. "These public servants are the people that enroll providers into Medicare, who deal with details and appeals, who approve the state changes in order to make Medicaid work on the ground. Cutting staff means these processes will be delayed, if not destroyed."