May 23, 2017
WASHINGTON – Today, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF) released the following statement on President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget. The President’s FY 2018 budget eliminates billions in funding for federal agencies and programs that would most impact children, struggling adults and working families, the elderly and persons with disabilities.
“This budget goes against our nation’s deeply held belief in our shared humanity,” said Kathy Ko Chin, APIAHF president and CEO. “The proposed cuts would devastate efforts to help keep families and communities across the country healthy.”
If enacted, the President’s FY 2018 budget would:
- Cut health and nutrition assistance programs that millions of Americans rely on.
- Ends Medicaid by converting it to a capped program or block grant. The cuts to Medicaid would be even greater than those proposed in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) repeal bill, further reducing funding for states.
- Cuts an additional $616 billion from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which are responsible for covering nearly 75 million adults and children, including 13.9 percent of Asian Americans and 24.9 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.
- Cuts food assistance for low-income persons and families.
Cut budgets responsible for research, improving healthcare quality and protecting civil rights.
- Cuts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by over $1.3 billion, which includes over $930 million in cuts to programs for
- HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, and sexually transmitted infections.
- Cuts the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) by $6 million.
- Eliminates funding for the CDC’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) program.
- Maintains flat funding for the Offices of Minority Heath.
In addition, the budget continues to underfund the Census Bureau ahead of the 2020 Census and critical demographic surveys. As in past years, the budget continues to include language restricting federal funding for abortion (known as the Hyde Amendment), except for limited circumstances. The restriction disproportionately impacts low-income women and women of color.