D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams announced Tuesday he will use $245 million in tobacco settlement funds to pay for various District-wide health initiatives, according to The Washington Post.
The money will be used for new medical facilities and the expansion of health services in an effort to make health care more accessible for poor residents and to reduce D.C.'s high chronic disease rate, The Post reported. According to The Post, more than 40 percent of adults suffer from chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes and hypertension in Wards 7 and 8, which are both located in Southeast D.C.
"We have never invested this kind of money in the health care infrastructure of the city," Ward 1-At Large D.C. Council member and Health Committee Chairman David A. Catania told The Post.
The money, which comes from a 1998 national settlement between various tobacco companies and U.S. states, will be directed to hospital and emergency care along the Anacostia River area, according to The Post.
