How federal cuts are impacting health services in northern Arizona

FLAGSTAFF (AZFamily) — Since Donald Trump took office, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has made $150 billion in budget cuts, with health services seeing the most.

The administration requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to cut 35 percent of spending while HHS has already cut staff by 25 percent.

Coconino County has a budget of about $500 million, and 15 percent, or about $75 million, comes from the federal government. County leaders like Supervisor Patrice Horstman say they already feel the effects of the federal budget cuts, especially regarding health services.

Horstman said the county health department had already received cuts to federal funding for several programs, but officials were not notified until after the cuts had already been in place.

“Last week, county Health and Human Services received a notice that multiple federal grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Center for Disease Control had been terminated,” Horstman said.

HHS Director Michele Axlund said five health jobs had been cut, and funding has been pulled, including funds for mobile vaccine services used primarily by the elderly or Indigenous groups.

“Less staff around being able to check as we’ve got a measles outbreak happening all around us in these other states,” Axlund said. “We’ve seen the vaccination rates in our own county start to go down with school-aged children. So we’re unable to put out prevention campaigns.”

Horstman is concerned about what essential services will be cut next, especially in such a large and rural county.

Forty percent of federal Meals on Wheels employees have been cut, and Horstman worries about the local impact.

“During 2024, Coconino County Meals on Wheels served 15,120 meals and 9960 were served in a congregate meal location here in Flagstaff and in the Williams communities,” Horstman said. “So you can see once again these are real impacts for real people.”

Axlund said they’re working with nonprofits in town to find solutions, but residents are concerned about the repercussions.

“Our front desk has been taking a lot of calls in the last couple weeks here,” she said. “Just worried. So today a senior has a meal, but what about tomorrow? And what if this is their only source of a meal?”

Both women said people can help by supporting local nonprofits like food banks and shelters, or people who need assistance can find help there. Here is a list of local resources:

• Flagstaff Salvation Army
• Flagstaff Family Food Center
• Flagstaff Shelter Services
• Assistance League Flagstaff

Coconino County also uses federal funding to help with post-wildfire flood mitigation and forest restoration for fire prevention. Horstman said that while these funds haven’t been cut, they’re still holding their breath.

“We do have ongoing forest restoration projects with the Forest Service right now and we’re waiting for a final, quite frankly, signing of contracts so that we can proceed with our forest restoration,” she said. “There’s a lot of confusion going on and as a result, when you have confusion, people are less likely to quite frankly, move forward on these large projects.”

Horstman said she hopes the federal government will reconsider local cuts and communicate better. She said the county is doing everything it can, but it needs a partnership between the local and federal governments.

“We rely on our partnerships with this state and the federal government because quite frankly here in Coconino County with our revenue sources, we cannot do it alone,” Horstman said. “So it really is a simple process of the federal government recommitting itself to its partnership with Coconino County.”

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