RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined a lawsuit Tuesday to prevent the federal government’s termination of more than $230 million in health care funding for the state, his office said.
The lawsuit was filed in United States District Court for the District of Rhode Island against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
According to the Office of the North Carolina Attorney General, the lawsuit was filed in response to the DHHS announcing it was immediately terminating $11 billion in health care funding across the country, including more than $230 million in funding for North Carolina.
The state attorney general’s office argues the federal government’s actions are unlawful because the DHHS is required to pay out funds Congress appropriated and because the federal government has “failed to follow the legal process for ending funds.”
“These funding cuts will cause immediate and dire harm to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, local public health departments across the state, and community-based organizations,” the North Carolina Attorney General’s office said in a statement. “Health departments may need to end public health programs and lay off staff, ultimately making it harder for North Carolinians to get the health care they need.”
According to the state attorney general’s office, the loss of more than $230 million in health care funding for North Carolina would result in a loss of funding to:
- Local health programs in at least 77 of North Carolina’s 86 health departments, particularly in the rural counties
- Community-based organizations and community health workers providing care and resources to people impacted by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina
- County-based nurses investigating disease outbreaks
- Collection and analysis of infection control data for people and North Carolina’s farming economy and livestock industry
- EMS programs in six counties (Davie, Durham, Gaston, Surry, Orange, and Cumberland counties)
- Response to outbreaks of infectious disease in high-risk places such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities, where North Carolina’s older population is at risk
- Effective control and prevention of the spread of infections, such as the flu
- Substance use disorder treatment programs, especially in rural areas, and the loss of behavioral health therapists and substance use treatment specialists
- Collegiate substance misuse recovery programs that operate in 14 North Carolina colleges and universities (Appalachian State University, Elizabeth City State University, East Carolina University, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina A&T State University, NC State University, North Carolina Central University, UNC Asheville, UNC Charlotte, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC Greensboro, UNC Pembroke, UNC Wilmington, and Winston-Salem State University)
“My job is to be a shield for the people of North Carolina and that includes protecting their health care,” Jackson said in a statement. “The federal government can’t just cancel nearly a quarter billion dollars that have already been congressionally allocated to our state. It’s unlawful and dangerous.
“That money supports rural hospitals, health care workers, emergency services, and public health programs that protect seniors and families across North Carolina,” Jackson continued in his statement. “There are legal ways to improve how tax dollars are used, but this wasn’t one of them. Immediately halting critical health care programs across the state without legal authority isn’t just wrong—it puts lives at risk. That’s why we’re going to court.”
Jackson is joined in the lawsuit by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C., and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
The full lawsuit can be viewed below:
