Government shutdown squeezes military medicine, halts NIH research, cuts CDC operations

Editor's Note

Following yesterday’s update on the impact of the federal government shutdown on telehealth and Affordable Care Act disruptions, the shutdown is also straining military health systems, biomedical research, and disease prevention programs, creating ripple effects for patient care and surgical innovation, Politico October 1 reports. While Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ health benefits remain funded, critical federal health agencies are operating with deep furloughs or suspended services.

At the Department of Health and Human Services, 40% of staff are furloughed. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has idled three-quarters of its workforce, pausing basic research and veterinary services, though clinical trials continue. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) furloughed two-thirds of its employees, halting opioid, HIV, and chronic disease programs and delaying analysis of infectious disease data. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) kept 86% of its staff to manage recalls and urgent oversight but limited proactive food safety inspections.

Military medicine faces immediate strain. More than one million service members are working without pay, and elective surgeries and procedures in military hospitals and dental facilities are postponed. Commissaries on US bases are closing or reducing services. If the funding impasse lasts beyond mid-October, active-duty personnel could miss paychecks without congressional action.

The shutdown also affects food safety and public nutrition programs. USDA inspectors remain at slaughterhouses without pay, while the FDA scales back preventive inspections. The Women, Infants, and Children program, which supports nearly 7 million low-income families, has only a week of contingency funding left, raising the risk of interrupted access to infant formula and produce.

For perioperative leaders, the most significant takeaways are the suspension of military surgical services, the stall in NIH-driven research that feeds medical innovation, and the weakening of CDC support to state and local health systems. The longer the shutdown continues, the more the disruptions will compound across patient care, workforce stability, and health system readiness.