Neighborcare Health and Other Community Health Centers Advocate State Lawmakers to Produce Revenue, Not Cut Health Care Safety-Net Programs
Mon, 2012-01-30
Leaders from Neighborcare Health and other Seattle-area community health centers traveled to Olympia on January 24, 2012, to meet with state lawmakers about the current proposal to address the state’s budget deficit by cutting health care safety-net programs. The leaders urged lawmakers to consider options to address the shortfall by producing revenue rather than cutting health care safety-net programs that our most vulnerable neighbors rely upon.
As state lawmakers face what is now an estimated $1.5 billion budget shortfall stemming from the Great Recession, they were reminded about how community clinics serve anyone in need, make neighborhoods stronger and save money through preventive care. Given the sluggish state economy, there continues to be a need for health care for the most vulnerable and saving safety-net programs like Basic Health Plan (BHP), a medical insurance program for low-income people not eligible for Medicaid, and Disability Lifeline, the medical portion of which helps adults who are unable to work, as well as maintaining Apple Health for Kids, a state initiative that helps children have health care coverage. Cutting BHP would affect about 35,000 state residents, and ending Disability Lifeline medical support would end assistance for up to an estimated 22,000 state residents.
All community health centers have seen dramatic increases in the uninsured already, and those numbers will go up even more if these programs are eliminated. Changes to these programs could make state spending increase because those without care will end up in emergency rooms as they get sicker and sicker.
The six community health centers in King County – Country Doctor Community Health Centers, HealthPoint, Neighborcare Health, Sea Mar Community Health Centers, Seattle Indian Health Board and ICHS -- serve around 200,000 people each year. They save the state more than $22 million each year in King County in emergency room use.
In photo, pictured, from left to right, are: Katie Bell (Neighborcare Health COO), WA St. Sen. Adam Kline (D-Seattle), Mark Secord (Neighborcare Health CEO and ED), Carolina Lucero (Sea Mar Community Health Centers Senior Vice President) and Teresita Batayola (ICHS CEO).
