Public Health Commons^™

The Health Care Access And Cost Consequences Of Reducing Health Center Funding, Peter Shin, Sara J. Rosenbaum

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

For over four decades, community health centers have served a critical role in providing affordable access to quality care to some of the nation's most vulnerable populations. Health centers have historically enjoyed broad bipartisan support, based on the evidence documenting their high quality care, crucial role in both urban and rural communities, and ability to "bend the cost curve."

On February 20, 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to reduce discretionary health center funding by $1.3 billion in FY 2011 alone. Although the spending bill was rejected by the U.S. Senate on March 10, 2011, final spending measures for …

Who Are The Health Center Patients Who Risk Losing Care Under The House Of Representatives' Proposed Fy 2011 Spending Reductions?, Sara J. Rosenbaum, Peter Shin, Leighton C. Ku

Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative

On February 20, 2011, the United States House of Representatives approved more than $61 billion in discretionary spending reductions for the remainder of FY 2011. The legislation includes $1.3 billion in direct spending cuts for community health centers. Using the NACHC patient estimates, we present evidence on the characteristics of patients whose continuing access to health center services is at risk. We arrived at these estimates using data from the Uniform Data System (UDS), the federal reporting system in which all health centers must participate, as well as national estimates from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), and published reports …