ICYMI: MedPage Today Covers New Report on Trump’s Dual Assault on Texas Rural Health and Disaster Response
Rafael Lemaitre in MedPage Today: “Bad morale at FEMA makes communities weaker, because if and when [FEMA workers] need to respond, they need to be at their best, and communities deserve that we support our public service”
TEXAS – Last week, Sabotaging Our Safety released a new report exposing how Donald Trump is putting Texas’s rural communities at risk through a dangerous one-two punch: gutting disaster preparedness programs while simultaneously slashing health care funding, cutting coverage, and forcing hospitals to close their doors.
In response, Sabotaging Our Safety and Defend America Action held a press call with Congresswoman Julie Johnson (D-TX), Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, former Director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and Rafael Lemaitre, former Director of Public Affairs at FEMA. The press call, covered by MedPage Today, featured speakers who outlined how Trump’s policies are creating a perfect storm of vulnerability in Texas – closing the rural hospitals that serve as lifelines for communities while dismantling the disaster preparedness programs those same communities depend on when the next storm hits.
See coverage below:
MedPage Today: Government Shutdown, Funding Cuts Threaten U.S. Disaster Preparedness, Experts Say
"Every additional day this shutdown goes on, our communities are growing more at risk of a major disaster," Rafael Lemaitre, former director of public affairs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said during a press conference sponsored by Defend America Action.
He noted that the Disaster Relief Fund -- a pot of money that FEMA pulls from to fund immediate needs after a disaster -- normally has around $22 billion in it, "but right now, it's under $3 billion.
That's one disaster away from being broke. Congress needs to act to make sure that that fund is replenished, so that if and when there's a major disaster, communities are prepared to pull from that money."
And there's another issue: "Many of my former FEMA colleagues are being treated like punching bags," said Lemaitre. "They have been through the trauma of the DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency] initiative at the beginning of the Trump administration. At FEMA, they are being subjected to a culture of fear of speaking out. They are now working without pay, and now there's even more threats of reductions in force [RIFs]."
"Bad morale at FEMA makes communities weaker, because if and when [FEMA workers] need to respond, they need to be at their best, and communities deserve that we support our public service," he added. "So the sooner this shutdown is concluded, the better it is for communities, especially rural communities."
The CDC is also under fire, said Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, former director of the CDC's National Center for immunization and Respiratory Diseases. "Although CDC is in Atlanta, the experts at CDC are really critical for the preparedness of every part of the country, especially parts of the country that require additional support and may not have the resources themselves to be able to implement a public health response" during a disaster, he said.
"What we're seeing with the dismantling of public health in this era is the idea that if you save parts of the program, then the program will still be able to function and will be able to work well on the ground," he noted. "And I'm here to tell you that's not the case."
"The current strategy -- the brain drain, the disregard for experts, and the active mis- and disinformation that is occurring in public health -- means that the U.S. and rural America are less prepared" for a disaster, he added.
Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas) discussed what would happen to some of her constituents if the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) expanded tax credits -- which are due to expire at the end of the year -- are not renewed; the credits make insurance more affordable for people who purchase health coverage through the ACA exchanges.
"In my district alone, nearly 100,000 of my constituents ... rely on the Affordable Care Act's tax credits to get affordable health coverage," she said. "Without these tax credits, people could see their premiums spike up to astronomical numbers."
Defend America Action also released a report from a group called Sabotaging Our Safety, which found that the anticipated Medicaid cuts are forcing rural hospitals to close their doors. "In Texas alone, these devastating cuts have put 15 rural hospitals at significant risk of closure while pushing an additional 17 hospitals into severe financial distress with losses at or above 9% -- a figure that frequently foreshadows closure within a year," the report said.
# # #
