Help Protect the Prevention and Public Health Fund
Immunize Nevada, in partnership with Every Child By Two, asks you to join us in urging Congress to protect crucial funding for immunization programs. Loss of this funding would have a devastating effect on the health and well-being of Nevadans. Putting politics aside, if and when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is repealed, nearly $600 million in Prevention and Public Health Funds (PPHF) that currently support immunizations across the U.S. will be eliminated, unless the PPHF is replaced with equivalent funds. This includes over $402 million supporting core immunization activities.
Established by the ACA, the PPHF was designed as a resource for disease prevention and health promotion efforts. Today, more than half of immunization programmatic funding comes from the PPHF.
During FY 2016, Nevada’s public health programs received almost 4 million in PPHF grants for preventive health activities such as heart disease, stroke, nutrition, diabetes, cancer control, immunizations, and more.
The Nevada State Immunization Program receives 56% of their budget from this federally allocated funding, which then provides grants for programs at our local health districts and Immunize Nevada to keep our infants, adolescents and adults healthy and protected. Specifically, this Congressional immunization funding supports the following:
community outreach
provider and public education
immunization service delivery
disease surveillance
outbreak control
immunization information systems
staffing and implementation of the Vaccines For Children (VFC) Program (which provides no or low-cost vaccines to those who qualify under a separate funding stream.)
a massive interruption to efforts to prevent emerging infectious diseases like Ebola and Zika
a diminished ability to provide an adequate health response to natural and manmade disasters
the elimination of targeted health programs such as those that seek to eliminate Hepatitis B among infants, combat cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV), and support adult vaccine initiatives.
The costs of these vital immunization and public health efforts will either be passed along to state budgets, or even worse, these programs could be completely eliminated; resulting in more people becoming sick and higher health care costs. Unfortunately, Nevada is ranked 51st for per-capita state-level spending on public health and cannot afford to lose this funding. To ensure that legislators reallocate these funds, we ask you to add your name to Every Child By Two’s Vaccine Funding Support Statement and Nevada’s Vaccine Funding Support Statement.
If we want to ensure that the CDC, our State Immunization Program, local health districts, and public health nonprofits, like Immunize Nevada, receive the funding we need to keep our communities safe from deadly but preventable diseases; we urge you to take action now. This is not a debate about the merits of repealing the ACA, but rather a request that Congress not forget vaccines and public health during the current and future fiscal year funding deliberations. Keeping our communities healthy is everyone’s responsibility.
As executive director of Immunize Nevada, Heidi Parker, MA leads and engages a diverse coalition of staff, volunteers, member organizations and funders so they are passionate about vaccines and access to preventive health care across Nevada’s rural, urban and frontier communities. Bringing over two decades of experience in nonprofit program management, fundraising and marketing, she has dedicated her career to being able to affect her community in a positive way, whether working with Head Start families, victims of violence, college students or Nevadans needing immunizations.
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