The state's 10 percent cut to Medi-Cal reimbursements will constrict the flow of care to the neediest, further clogging hospital emergency rooms and pathetically reimbursing the few doctors who agree to treat poor patients.
Still, the cuts themselves are a symptom, not a disease. The real culprits are many, but the state's estimated $15.2 billion deficit and the country's broken health care system are good places to start. You can't spend what you don't have.
Our partisan state lawmakers are compounding the problem by, once again, not doing their job and passing a budget. That's the real outrage.
Medi-Cal's reserves are expected to run out in less than two weeks, leaving no money to reimburse the community clinics that provide critical care in our region.
"These are nonprofit providers. They don't have a lot of money sitting in the bank," said Doreen Bradshaw, executive director of Shasta Consortium of Community Health Centers.
One doesn't have to look far to see the seriousness of this situation.
The chief executive of the Eastern Plumas Health Care District, which runs a Portola hospital and clinics, told the Sacramento Bee his emergency room may close unless there's a budget by the end of this month.
With credit tighter after the mortgage crisis, clinics may also find it harder to borrow money to keep the cash flowing and the lights on.
Meanwhile, there's still plenty of light (at least the electric sort) and air conditioning in Sacramento, where Republicans and Democrats show every sign of digging in for a protracted and ideological fight. Secure in their gerrymandered districts, they seem content to choose posturing over progress. What a shame. ...
This editorial first appeared in the Record Searchlight on Tuesday.
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