[Originally published in Synapse on November 12, 1981.]
The theme of this year’s American Public Health Association convention was “Energy, Health and Environment.” However, the keynote addresses and the barroom and hotel lobby talk all focused on Reagan’s budget cuts to public health programs.
Most participants at this Los Angeles convention agreed that the Association, the largest organization of public health professionals in the U.S., should take a leading role in opposing the health care cuts.
The strategies proposed to fight the cuts included strengthening the lobbying arm of the Association. publicizing the proposed cuts and documenting the effects of the cutbacks on patients.
The Association membership sent a clear message to Reagan by electing Dr. Anthony Robbins as its new president. Nine months ago, the Reagan administration fired Robbins who was then head of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. He was fired for “insubordinate behavior” and “pro-worker bias.” Robbins, however, may continue to raise the ire of the administration.
“The President and Mr. Stockman are consciously and intentionally destroying the public health in the U.S.,” Robbins said in an APHA address.
Public health vs. military
Other speakers, including Governor Brown and Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), condemned the increase in military spending, saying it is by definition, an affront on public health.
“Eighteen billion dollars in arms were sold to Third World countries last year,” said Brown, “and $41 billion are contracted for this year’s sales. Arms sales to the Third World have now surpassed food sales. We will soon be in a world where the term ‘public health’ will be meaningless.”
Robbins emphasized that the money saved by cutting food programs, basic research, Medicaid and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to name a few, has been absorbed by the military budget. He claimed the military’s increased spending suggests preparation for nuclear war, the ultimate public health disaster.
Association booklet
The Association has published a 48-page free booklet, summarizing the present and proposed cuts in the public health budget. The following examples represent existing or proposed cuts:
- In Baltimore, 12,000 children will be dropped from the school lunch program. In Tampa 20,000 will lose their lunches. In Norwalk, meal cuts will save $365,000.
- Federally subsidized snacks and meals to 700,000 poor children, aged one to four, will be cut.
- VA hospital staff will be cut by 6,000, 60 VA hospitals will close, and out-patient visits will drop by 1.7 million.
- One million food stamp recipients will be cut from the roles. No striking workers, even those qualifying with low incomes, will be eligible for food stamps.
- 7,000 pregnant women, children and infants will lose WIC program nutrition supplements.
- 20,000 to 30,000 health care workers funded under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program will lose their jobs, this will most severely affect publicly funded ambulatory care facilities and preventive health education.
- The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been cut by 30 percent. The commission is credited with preventing 3000 deaths and half a million injuries per year.
- Cuts in OSHA would reduce staff by 1,210, including 750 persons charged with enforcement of occupational standards. This at a time when the average workplace can expect one inspection every 10 years.
- State losses in Medicaid and health and preventive health services will run from a low of $4.6 million in Alaska to $310 million in New York, for 1982 alone.
- 170,000 migrant and seasonal farmworkers will lose Medicaid eligibility.
- The cuts will eliminate Medicare coverage for pneumococcal vaccines for the aged.
- Training funds for health professionals will be slashed.
