Earlier this week, Governor Maura Healey posted a new public dashboard displaying the total amount of federal funding cuts to Massachusetts state agencies. To date, $362 million in direct funding to the Commonwealth has been cut, including over $100 million for various Department of Public Health (DPH) prevention programs as well as disaster prevention aid. The public health funding reductions will impact a wide range of essential public health, mental health, and addiction services, such as disease outbreak surveillance, newborn screenings, childhood immunizations, and testing for viruses and other pathogens.
In addition, the Healey Administration’s preliminary analysis of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Reconciliation bill estimates that the Committee’s overall actions specific to Medicaid, if adopted into law, could reduce federal Medicaid revenue to Massachusetts by over $1 billion over time and result in hundreds of thousands of individuals losing Medicaid coverage. MassHealth’s annual spending currently totals over $21 billion, with over $13 billion funded by the federal government.
The Healey-Driscoll Administration is closely monitoring the impact of federal actions on funding in Massachusetts. In some cases, the Attorney General’s Office is pursuing legal action to challenge funding cuts.