Budget cuts expected to hit disease prevention programs

Programs to promote health and prevent disease are expected to suffer deep cuts in the next few days as Governor Patrick brings the state's budget into line with drastically lower revenues, a public health leader has learned.

Valerie Bassett, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, said today she has been told that the state Department of Public Health will likely lose $32 million, or 9 percent of its non-hospital budget, to 9C budget cuts, named for the section of state law granting budget-cutting authority to the governor.

DPH spokeswoman Jennifer Manley said none of the 9c cuts has been finalized.

Among the programs expected to lose support are the state's highly successful smoking cessation effort, as well as programs to prevent teen pregnancy, youth violence, and suicide, Bassett said. Infection control would be cut by about half and the Center for Primary Care Recruitment, which helped doctors pay some of their medical school debt if they worked for community health centers, would lose all its state funding.

"We're asking questions about what is going to stay and what is going to go in government," Bassett said in an interview. "Given the need to avoid preventable medical costs, can we afford to decimate the prevention programs that keep people healthy?"

The cuts, which are expected to be announced by the governor in the next few days, would be the fourth round of reductions since the economic downturn began last year. The anti-smoking program's funding is expected to drop 10 percent, but since the fiscal year that began in July 2008 it will have lost a total of 65 percent.