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HOME > ABOUT > PRESS > COMMUNITY HEALTH PLAN SLASHED BY $1.5 MILLION
Article published - April 29, 2009
Credit: THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
Community health plan slashed by $1.5 million
by Claire St. John
Yolo County will consider cutting public health programs at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting while trying to close a $24 million budget gap.
The proposed cuts would result in $1.5 million in savings for the county by reducing or modifying eli-gibility for patients.
The biggest burden will fall on the undocumented residents of Yolo County, who will no longer be eligible under the Yolo County Healthcare for Indigents Program, or YCHIP, which serves about 2,500 Yolo County residents, half of whom are undocumented.
"Our county has always been proud of the fact that we've always covered everyone equal to or better than Medi-Cal, irrespective of their citizenship," said Pat Billingsly, the Yolo County Health Department's deputy director for medical services. "But there's just no more well there to go to. We've had to take these steps."
The county also expects to increase the charge to patients for a doctor's visit and, under a state of California budget resolution, will no longer reimburse health care providers for adult dental, eye or other specialty services. Similar services for children will still be covered.
The county Health Department has had to cut $3 million from its budget over the past few years and eliminate 40 positions over the past two years, Billingsly said.
"We looked at all kinds of things," he said. "We postponed looking at the undocumented people for years because we're an agriculture town."
Robin Affrime, CEO of CommuniCare Health Centers, which provides health care, dental services and preventive care to low-income Yolo County residents, said the cuts will have a terrible impact on families and community health care providers.
For the undocumented, who will receive no coverage:
"What happens when you start asking people if they're undocumented, when you start asking for citizenship, they get scared," Affrime said. "They stop coming into the clinics, where they can come (even if the cuts are adopted). They stop bringing their children, and children are covered in Yolo County. That's really a problem."
For documented adults who will still receive YCHIP services, the loss of dental, eye and specialty care coverage also will be a problem:
"The half of the people that are still on YCHIP, if they need glasses, they won't be able to get them," Affrime said. "If they need dental care, they won't be able to get it. Diabetics really need podiatry care. Where are they going to get it? They won't be covered."
And it will affect community clinics such as CommuniCare:
"We're estimating about half of the patients who were on YCHIP, we won't be receiving that funding from the county anymore," Affrime said. "They will become uninsured, and they'll come in to the clinic and pay on a sliding scale. What is it they say? No margin, no mission."
Affrime said CommuniCare will nevertheless continue its mission to serve all who come through its doors, despite fewer dollars.
"It's an issue," she said. "It's a little less money for us, but we'll still be there to see the patients."
The effects will also be felt by people with insurance, Affrime said.
If people aren't getting the primary care they need, she said, they wind up in the emergency room, which strains hospital budgets and makes access more difficult, even for those with insurance.
"It affects the community's health because a lot of people, if they don't have coverage, they don't want to come in, they don't want to pay and then when they're really sick, they don't get the immunization, they don't get the care," she explained.
Billingsly said the Health Department is well aware of the effect the cuts will have, but added there simply isn't money to pay for some services.
"We're desperately sorry that this is falling on the hospitals in the area, CommuniCare, Winters," he said. "The county really regrets that fact."
The Board of Supervisors will conduct a public hearing on the proposed cuts at its meeting Tuesday, sometime after 10 a.m. The board meets at the County Administration Building, 625 Court St., Woodland.
"I hope there's going to be lots of people speaking on Tuesday," Affrime said. "I am, I'm sure my doctors are, at least one of my patients is. Because really, I understand that the Yolo County Board of Supervisors has some hard decisions to make, but in this case, I would advocate that I really think that they're making the wrong choice."
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