FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
March 27, 2025 
Contact: Jack Cardinal, jcardinal@communitycatalyst.org  

“These cuts represent a full-scale retreat from our shared responsibility to keep people safe and healthy.” 

BOSTON, MA — In response to sweeping health care cuts announced today under the Trump administration, Brandon G. Wilson, Interim Co-President and CEO of Community Catalyst, warned that the changes will have devastating consequences for families, communities and the nation’s ability to respond to public health threats. The announcement includes the elimination and reorganization of 20,000 roles at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), affecting key departments supporting older adults, people with disabilities and people with mental health or substance use disorders. In addition, HHS is stripping billions in critical funding from state and local health departments as well as potentially dismantling the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention. 

“These cuts represent a full-scale retreat from our shared responsibility to keep people safe and healthy,” said Wilson. “They leave families and communities to carry the burden through preventable illness, rising medical costs, increased caregiving needs and fewer resources in moments of crisis. Gutting programs that help older adults and people with disabilities live independently and hamstringing communities’ efforts to address the opioid epidemic. And let’s be clear—this is not what people want. These decisions go against the values we share across race, place and income: that everyone should have the freedom to live a healthy life and care for the people we love.” 

The cuts announced today are particularly alarming when seen through the broader cuts to supportive services across the government. In combination with disruptions in food support, social security and looming threats to Medicaid and SNAP benefits, older adults, people with disabilities and people needing support for mental health or substance use disorders are becoming increasingly more vulnerable. Departments within HHS like the Administration for Community Living (ACL), which provides support to older adults and people with disabilities to live independently, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which leads public health efforts to support people with mental health and substance use conditions, are being reorganized, moved or trimmed, jeopardizing critical health care services.  

The impact will fall hardest on those already facing deep barriers to care—especially Black and Latinx families, LGBTQ+ communities, people living with HIV, and those with low incomes—further widening racial and economic health gaps.  

“Our public health infrastructure is already under strain,” Wilson added. “Slashing support now doesn’t just threaten programs—it threatens lives. It means less ability to prevent illness and promote health, respond to emergencies, and support mental health and chronic illness care.” 

Wilson emphasized that Community Catalyst will continue building power with community-based organizations left to fill the gap, despite being underfunded themselves. 

“We’ll continue to mobilize resources, provide technical assistance and advocate alongside partners across the country to protect what matters most: the health and well-being of our communities. These cuts do not reflect the will of the people, and they will not stop us from fighting for a future where everyone has what they need to be healthy.”  

Community Catalyst is calling on policymakers, advocates, and community leaders to speak out and resist these harmful rollbacks.  

Wilson noted that the cuts will undermine the nation’s public health infrastructure, reverse progress on critical health issues such as HIV, and shift even more burden onto underfunded, overstretched community-based organizations. Additionally, these reductions will hinder efforts to address substance use disorders, mental health challenges, and chronic conditions as Long COVID, ultimately jeopardizing the overall health and well-being of all of our communities. 

###

About Community Catalyst: 
Community Catalyst is a national organization dedicated to building the power of people to create a health system rooted in race equity and health justice, and a society where health is a right for all. We’re an experienced, trusted partner to organizations across the country, a change agent to policymakers at the local, state, and national level, and both an adversary and a collaborator to health systems in our efforts to advance health justice. We partner with local, state and national organizations and leaders to leverage and build power so that people are at the center of important decisions about health and health care, whether they are made by health care executives, in state houses, or on Capitol Hill. Together with partners, we’re building a powerful, united movement with a shared vision of and strategy for a health system accountable to all people. Learn more at www.communitycatalyst.org.