(Courtesy of Austin Regional Clinic and Leindani Creative)The health-care bill that Senate Republicans released Thursday would eliminate critical funds for core public health programs that make up about 12 percent of the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Senate bill would end funding starting in fiscal 2018, which begins in October. That’s more quickly than the House GOP legislation, which would gut funding for the Prevention and Public Health Fund starting in October 2018. As a provision of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, the Prevention and Public Health Fund provides the CDC almost $1 billion annually. Money from the prevention fund accounted for about 40 percent of the CDC’s total immunization program budget last year.

Source: Washington Post June 22, 2017 20:03 UTC