HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Friday sent a letter to Congress asking for reforms to Puerto Rico's healthcare programs to help fight the growing Zika virus crisis and eliminate limits on healthcare funding, according to The Hill.
The Obama administration wants to remove the cap on Puerto Rico's Medicaid funding and increase the federal contribution to the program so it is more equal to the assistance allocated to the 50 states, according to the report.
The secretaries' letter warns that current funding limitations on the island's healthcare programs are impeding its ability to respond to the Zika virus, which is growing worse.
According to the report, the CDC "estimates that a quarter of Puerto Rico's population may be infected with Zika by the end of the year," Secretaries Burwell and Lew wrote in the letter. "Despite this imminent threat, financial constraints have complicated the timely and comprehensive response required."
In addition to inadequate funding for Zika response efforts, the secretaries say impending healthcare funding cuts under the Affordable Care Act could jeopardize the healthcare of hundreds of thousands of people. One-time healthcare funding under the ACA could expire by December 2017, putting 900,000 Puerto Ricans at risk of losing coverage. Nearly half of the Puerto Rican population is enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP, according to the report.