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Gov. Healy: NIH, Medicaid cuts threaten Boston Children's research and patients
Summary
Massachusetts Gov. Healy said federal proposals to cut NIH funding and Medicaid risk halting clinical trials, costing jobs and harming children during a visit to Boston Children's Hospital, where hospital leaders and state health officials described disruptions to research and vaccine monitoring.
Massachusetts Gov. Healy visited Boston Children's Hospital on Oct. 12 to highlight what he described as an immediate threat from proposed federal cuts to National Institutes of Health funding and to Medicaid that he said are already disrupting pediatric research and patient care.
Healy said the proposed cuts affect not only research budgets but also clinical trials and jobs: "These cuts are going to cost jobs. They're going to cost lives. Young vulnerable lives. It's not rhetoric. It's not hyperbole. It's a fact," he said during a discussion with hospital and state health leaders.
The governor and hospital leaders said the hospital is a major recipient of NIH funding and that reductions have forced some programs to scale back. "What we have heard is that that funding isn't coming through in all instances," Healy said, adding that some colleges, universities and research programs in Massachusetts have already cut back postdoctoral positions and research activity because expected NIH funds have not arrived.
Dr. Churchwell, speaking as a hospital representative, agreed that the cuts are affecting research activity and said the most visible stoppages have been in vaccine-related work. "We are actually it's really around, vaccine work that we're seeing the most, engagement or stoppage around," Dr. Churchwell said, adding that the hospital has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration on monitoring work that has been disrupted.
Healy and Dr. Churchwell also flagged broader risks to the state's research ecosystem. Healy said some foreign and international entities have been recruiting postdoctoral researchers and others as U.S. funding has become uncertain, and described that competition as different from routine recruitment because, he said, funding interruptions can effectively "turn off the lights" on research programs.
The officials singled out Medicaid and MassHealth as areas at risk from the broader federal budget approach Healy described as proposing large tax cuts funded by reductions to federal programs. Healy said that at Boston Children's, "46 percent of patients are enrolled in Medicaid, are enrolled in MassHealth," and that cuts to these programs would hit the hospital's youngest patients.
Neither Healy nor hospital leaders described a formal remedy at the event. The speakers urged engagement with members of Congress and noted ongoing court challenges; Healy referenced a federal court order that in some instances required continued NIH funding flow but said institutions were still reporting interruptions. Dr. Churchwell characterized the effect as both direct cuts and the anxiety and operational stress those cuts create for research staff.
The visit brought state officials including Secretary of Health and Human Services Kate Walsh and Department of Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein; their presence was noted by the governor but they did not deliver substantive new policy announcements during the event.
The event emphasized the potential consequences for clinical trials and workforce retention in Massachusetts rather than announcing policy action by the state. Hospital leaders and the governor called on federal lawmakers and administration officials to ensure research and public-health monitoring funds reach institutions without interruption.
Looking ahead, the speakers urged continued advocacy and legal challenge where appropriate. Healy said courts and Congress have roles to play, and hospital leaders said they are working to support staff through the disruption while continuing patient care.
