Budget Cuts Reverse Gains for Community Health Centers
October 7, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Obama administration has scaled back plans to expand the nation’s network of community health centers in the wake of its budget deal with congressional Republicans, NPR reports.
Community clinics were a linchpin of the president’s health care overhaul, due to receive $11-billion over five years to treat millions more patients. But after the March budget pact cut $600-million from regular 2011 spending on the local centers—about half the original appropriation—the administration used money scheduled to build new centers to help existing facilities fill the gap.
Dan Hawkins, senior vice president at the National Association of Community Health Centers, said that with the cuts clinics’ ability to expand by 2014, when the health law is due to begin spreading coverage to 32 million uninsured people, “has been set back.”
