Tens of thousands of people will likely die of drug overdoses under President Donald Trump’s watch, as America’s horrific opioid epidemic continues. Yet with his first big policy document — the 2018 budget proposal — Trump is proving that he’ll do little to nothing about the crisis.

If anything, Trump’s proposal could make the opioid epidemic worse. Where the budget does anything of significance regarding the epidemic, it comes through cuts to the office in charge of coordinating drug policy, Medicaid, public health programs, and more. And there is nothing in the budget to balance out the cuts — leaving a crater in the government’s response to a crisis that led to more than 33,000 opioid overdose deaths and more than 52,000 total drug overdose deaths in 2015.

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The federal budget proposal released on Tuesday by President Trump cuts life-saving services and will harm the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of Baltimoreans. It will particularly affect the following individuals:

Seniors: One hundred thousand Baltimore City residents are over the age of 60, and 1 in 6 of these residents live below the poverty line. Cuts to Medicaid—which covers services that Medicare does not—could leave these seniors without prescription drugs, glasses, and hearing aids. The budget also makes cuts to essential programs like nursing home care and Meals on Wheels, which provides more than 187,000 meals to Baltimore older adults in their homes in each year.

Children: Eighty thousand children in Baltimore depend on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for medical care. By cutting Medicaid, removing the enhanced federal match rate for CHIP, and capping reimbursement for CHIP services, the proposed budget will limit the ability of children to get basic health services such as immunizations and treatment for asthma.

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BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore City officials have announced what they are doing to prevent the spread of Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses.

Zika, which is spread by mosquito bites and unprotected sex, is linked to microcephaly, a serious birth defect which causes abnormally small heads and severe brain damage.

There have been 15 cases reported in Baltimore City, after the person contracted the virus by traveling to an area with active transmission.

There have been more than 5,000 confirmed cases in the U.S., with 224 locally-transmitted cases in Florida and Texas.

The Baltimore City Health Department has implemented a plan “to help educate city agencies and communities across our city how to prevent and respond to the Zika virus.”

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