GOP cuts to budget would hurt local health clinics
By Mark Taylor Post-Tribune correspondent February 14, 2011 4:28PM
Updated: August 4, 2011 4:20PM
Local community health centers are bracing for $1.3 billion in national funding cuts if the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives’ budget passes.
A vote is expected within days on proposed reductions that would cost the nation’s community health centers the ability to treat 11 million patients — 3.3 million of them new patients who just gained access to care. An estimated 127 community health centers also would likely close, according to the Bethesda, Md.-based National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), which advocates for community health centers.
Officials from local community health centers, which staff 13 locations in four Northwest Indiana counties, said their programs and patients would feel the pain. Community health centers are locally owned and operated not-for-profit clinics that offer low cost, primary and preventive healthcare services on a sliding fee scale to a population frequently poor and uninsured.
An official with HealthLinc, which has four locations in Valparaiso, Michigan City and Knox, said it would lose $217,000 that allowed it to treat more than 2,000 patients last year with behavioral health services.
HealthLinc also requested additional funding to hire a physician in Valparaiso and expand Saturday hours, both of which would be cut.
“I don’t get why they’re picking on community health centers, which reduce healthcare costs and improve quality of care,” HealthLinc CEO Beth Wrobel said.
“We are safety net providers who saw 15,000 patients last year with 60,000 visits. If we’re unable to serve more people, their only option is to go to the emergency room, one of the most expensive ways to provide primary care. And I don’t know any emergency room in the area that wants that.”
Community HealthNet, which has four locations in Gary and Merrillville, said the center stands to lose $227,000 and will be unable to hire an obstetrician slated to provide prenatal care services.
“The direct impact on us will be for future projects,” said Community HealthNet Executive Director Janet Seabrook, M.D., who said the center’s application to launch a new clinic in a medically underserved area of Hammond would end if funding is cut.
“This is the biggest threat ever to our funding,” Seabrook said. “It feels like the rug is being pulled from under us.”
The proposed cuts also impact the National Health Service Corps, a federal program that allows government forgiveness of medical school loans to doctors who agree to work in needy, medically underserved areas.
“Now all those providers in the pipeline who have applied will be turned down, reducing the ability of underserved areas to attract providers,” Seabrook said.
Jan Wilson, CEO NorthShore Health Centers in Lake Station and Portage, said the cuts will prevent the center from expanding. “We’re adding 500 patients a month,” Wilson said. “I think with the economy in trouble and unemployment so high, it’s a mistake to cut health centers that treat increased numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients. Congress is cutting off their noses to spite their faces.”
Dan Hawkins, NACHC senior vice president for public policy and research, estimated that if the proposed House cuts are approved along with a proposal to repeal the health reform law, it would slash community health center funding by half.
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