The White House announced, Monday, that it intends to officially end in May the state of health emergency that was declared three years ago with the outbreak of the Covid epidemic.
And with the end of the federal national and public health emergencies that entered into force in January 2020 during the term of former President Donald Trump, government support for Covid medicines, health insurances and all forms of aid will automatically stop.
In practice, and due to opposition from Congress, a large part of the government aid programs has already run out of money because of Congress’s opposition to continuing the funding.
The current debate is largely political, with Republicans who control the House of Representatives preparing bills aimed at ending the national emergency on March 1, and the public health emergency on April 11.
The White House said in a statement that such an abrupt termination would have “extremely significant implications for our country’s health system and government operations.” This includes “widespread chaos and uncertainty across the entire healthcare system,” the statement added.
“Hospitals and nursing homes that relied on the flexibility afforded by the state of emergency will plunge into chaos without having enough time to retrain staff and create a new accounting system,” he said.
The statement indicated that another reason behind the importance of the deadline until May is to give the government time to prepare for the consequences of ending the state of emergency on immigration at the border between the United States and Mexico.
A measure known as Section 42 currently in place that allows for the rapid removal of undocumented immigrants is legal only because of the health emergency, and ending this situation “rapidly” would “lead to a significant additional influx of immigrants.”
The White House has confirmed that it wants to replace Section 42 with another legal mechanism to control the flow of potential immigrants, but that it needs time to do so.
