While he is encouraging every parent to have their child immunized, President Obama’s new budget cuts $50 million from an immunization program for poor, uninsured, American-Indian and Alaska Native citizens.
The new budget reduces the 317 Immunization Program from $611 million in 2015 to $561 million in 2016 according to budget papers and a handful of reports.
A report today on Vocativ notes the importance of the program according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says, “Section 317 vaccine is a precious national resource that will continue to be used to fill critical public health needs, such as providing routine vaccination for those with no insurance and responding to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
The proposed cut comes as the nation is in a heated debate over parents refusing to get their children immunized for measles as cases break out.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
