Where I live, in Nashville, there are a plethora of options if I need to get to an Emergency Department. While not New York City, this town is big enough to support around ten major hospitals, thousands of physicians, and over a dozen safety net clinics and dispensing sites- that serve low income and uninsured patients. With two boys under six, [...]
I have some good news. With 13,000 HRSA federally funded clinics (aka FQHCs and RHCs) positioned to support the most under-served areas and populations across America, many of the uninsured do have access to at least basic primary care. That’s good, right?
Layer in the thousands of free clinics and faith-based clinics, and the “safety [...]
Total medical care expenditures among all of the uninsured in 2004 (including both those without coverage for all or part of the year) were almost $125 billion – with over $40 Billion of uncompensated care.
When I hear statistics that large, it can be hard to comprehend and digest as I try to weigh the [...]
In these difficult economic times, and a new President who is seeking to provide more funding to indigent clinics, the conditions may be right for a thousands of cash-strapped charitable clinics to position themselves to qualify for federal funding. Former President, George Bush, doubled the funding for Federally Qualified Health Centers from $1B to $2B and President Obama may push for even more generous funding.
January 20th ushered in a new Presidential Administration. Our democracy’s peaceful transfer of power was on display as a new President offered us a visionary speech followed by fireworks and a national response of black-tie celebrations in Washington DC and small-town parties across the country. This year, as we listened to the inaugural address, we listened for an honest acknowledgement of the hard realities of the economic and healthcare crisis but also a reason to be hopeful that a renewed focus on healthcare policy reform
