Several efforts to address some of Mississippi’s most urgent problems — its high risk of HIV transmission, the addiction and overdose crisis and the country’s leading rate of babies dying before their first birthdays — have suffered setbacks since the U.S. Health and Human Services agency rescinded over $230 million of public health dollars from the state this spring.
Unlike other attorneys general, Mississippi’s top lawyer, Lynn Fitch, has not joined a lawsuit that recouped billions of these dollars across the country.
In early April, a few days after the federal government withdrew $11.4 billion of promised public health funds, Democratic governors and attorneys general representing 23 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit alleging that the clawback was unlawful. In mid-May, the judge hearing the case granted temporary relief for the states and ordered the country’s health agency to restore funds.
But the federal judge limited the ruling to states that had joined the lawsuit, and Mississippi is not one of those states.
When Mississippi Today asked Michelle Williams, chief of staff for Fitch, why Mississippi didn’t join the lawsuit, she said she didn’t know which lawsuit the newsroom was referring to and would have to look at it before commenting. After Mississippi Today emailed her the judge’s ruling, she did not respond.
The Mississippi State Department of Health and the Department of Mental Health were administering the funds. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney told lawmakers that his agency would lose about $230 million, and the mental health department estimated its federal funding loss from the decision to be just over $7.5 million.
Health Department spokesperson Greg Flynn said in an email that “while we would love to have our federal funding that was allocated restored, we are still providing mission critical services to the public.”
He went on to say the department understands this will likely not be the last court ruling related to these funds, and the case could end up in U.S. Supreme Court.
Adam Moore, Flynn’s counterpart at the mental health department, emailed Mississippi Today that while the federal government’s decision caught his agency off-guard, the rescinded dollars were set to expire in September. He said recipients of federal health grants do not always spend all their funds, and there’s no guarantee the $7.5 million cut would have been fully used.
“It’s simply difficult to speculate on the overall impact and whether they all would have all been utilized before the planned expiration date,” Moore said.
Five months into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, Mississippi is already seeing the consequences of cuts to these and other promised public health dollars.
Community mental health centers have had to scale back their efforts like those to address addiction in new and expecting parents, local health departments and partnering organizations have had to shut down free testing for sexually transmitted infections, and the nonprofit administering the state’s safety net family planning program has been forced to lay off half its staff.
In emailed statements, spokespeople for the federal health and mental health departments have told Mississippi Today that the public health problem these funds addressed is no longer a threat, and the agencies will prioritize the health of Mississippians in a new agency called the Administration for a Healthy America.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Attorney General Lynn Fitch doesn’t join lawsuit to recoup Mississippi’s lost public health funding )
Also on site :