Lisa Diamond knows what Indianapolis moms and their babies are facing.
The 57-year-old teaches breastfeeding classes and connects families to resources through the Minority Health Coalition of Marion County, a nonprofit fighting health disparities.
So while she was excited to learn that Indiana’s infant mortality rate has dropped to the lowest number in history, she still had concerns.
“Services are being cut for those most in need,” Diamond said.
She pointed to Health First Indiana funding, which had infused millions into local public health departments to improve outcomes, including maternal and infant health. But Indiana lawmakers, facing a $2 billion budget deficit, slashed the program by more than 70% for the next two years.
While Gov. Mike Braun approved those cuts, his comments during the state’s Maternal & Child Health Symposium on June 25 suggested the program would receive more money in the future.
“I was disappointed that you had to do some things to just conform to a budget,” Braun told a room of about 100 doctors, nurses and advocates. “I think we’ve got to make a greater investment in it. We are a state that can afford it.”
In an interview with Mirror Indy afterward, Braun stopped short of committing to restoring Health First Indiana’s funding in the future. He said he would look at the program during the next budget forecast.
“Those were things that had to be done,” he said, referencing the recent cuts. “That doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re going to maybe do next year.”
While Diamond appreciated the governor showing up, she worried his speech was “performative.”
And about that funding?
“I’m not holding my breath,” she said.
‘We had some incredible momentum’
Braun, a Republican, ran for governor last year on a promise to make health care cheaper. He’s taken on Indiana’s hospitals, which boast some of the highest prices in the country, and issued a slew of executive orders to “Make Indiana Healthy Again.”
That’s a riff on the slogan made famous by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services Secretary in the Trump administration. He stood by Braun’s side in April, when the governor announced he would ban people from using food assistance to buy soda and candy, cut down on “waste, fraud and abuse” in the state’s Medicaid program and commission a study on diet-related chronic disease.
Braun echoed a similar message during his comments at the June 25 symposium. He said Indiana needs to control chronic disease and improve nutrition so mothers can have better outcomes.
A new state report found nearly 18% of babies who died before their first birthday were born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy; about another 5% had mothers with hypertension.
Those were some of the pervasive health challenges that prompted former Gov. Eric Holcomb, also a Republican, to champion Health First Indiana’s massive investments into public health.
In the past two years, the program split $225 million between local health departments across the state, which have historically been underfunded. But when it was time to write a new budget, Braun proposed capping funding on Health First Indiana at $100 million.
The state legislature’s cuts were steeper — leaving all 92 county health departments to share only $40 million between them annually over the next two years.
“We had some incredible momentum,” said Paul Halverson, the founding dean of the Richard Fairbanks School of Health at IU Indianapolis in a May interview with Mirror Indy. “Now the funding is severely restricted and people will suffer.”
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‘Those numbers simply won’t stand’
At the symposium, state officials presented preliminary health data from 2024. It showed Indiana’s infant mortality dropping to a rate of 6.3 deaths per every 1,000 births — notable progress in a state where mothers and children have some of the worst outcomes.
“This is not magic,” said Eden Bezy, the assistant commissioner and director of the Indiana Department of Health’s maternal and child health division. “This is because we worked together.”
During her presentation, Bezy praised the Health First Indiana initiative as a key part of the success. She declined to answer Mirror Indy’s questions about how the funding loss could affect future progress.
In an email to Mirror Indy, a spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Health said local health departments will need to adjust their plans because of the funding changes.
“We encourage our local health departments to continue to work with their community stakeholders and foundations to continue this work in light of reduced funding,” the June 25 statement said.
The implications were top of mind for those attending the event.
“If you cut funding to things that are working,” said Nicole Carey, a nonprofit leader who researches maternal health in Indianapolis, “then those numbers simply won’t stand.”
Diamond, the Minority Health Coalition member, also pointed out other disparities that haven’t improved. Black infants are still more than two times as likely to die in Indiana than white infants.
She worried about the state’s public health cuts, coupled with looming proposals from Congressional Republicans to ax billions in federal Medicaid spending, exacerbating the problem.
A study from KFF, a health policy nonprofit, found that Medicaid pays for about 41% of Indiana’s births.
“We need to continue to support the very basic needs of people,” Diamond said.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Mary Claire Molloy covers health. Reach her at 317-721-7648 or email maryclaire.molloy@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @mcmolloy7.
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