Obamacare repeal means deep cuts to CDC

For the nation's public health agency, Obamacare repeal means a big funding cut, although it was never supposed to be that way.

Time and time again over the last few years, Congress dipped into a special public health fund set up under the Affordable Care Act to patch over cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, instead of using the account for new projects as intended.

The CDC has become so reliant on the healthcare law's Prevention and Public Health Fund that the agency now uses the fund to finance 12 percent of its programs. That money could be erased if Republicans follow through on their promises to repeal much of the law.

Rep. Nita Lowey, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said killing the prevention fund would "blow a massive hole" in the CDC's budget.

"It would mean less research, worse health outcomes and more death and suffering from preventable disease," Lowey said. "It is just one of many terrible consequences that would result from this unconscionable idea."