May 11 2012
California Gov. Jerry Brown warns more budget cuts are coming, and many expect trims to health programs. In the meantime, a bid to reduce funding to federally qualified health centers in the state failed.
Los Angeles Times: Gov. Jerry Brown Warns More Budget Cuts Are Coming
Activists who have met with administration officials said they expect cuts in health and welfare programs in particular. Casey Young, a lobbyist for AARP, said Brown's health secretary, Diana Dooley, "appeared visibly shaken by the choices she was having to sort through" in a recent meeting (Megerian and York, 5/11).
California Healthline: State Loses Bid To Cut FQHC Rates, Restructure Pay System
State officials earlier this year said they wanted to introduce a "new payment methodology" for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics in California. Their plan included a funding cut of 10 percent, or about $100 million, to those centers. But Assembly and Senate budget subcommittees rejected the proposal last month, calling the plan unworkable. Assembly budget subcommittee member Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata) said cutting so much funding for FQHCs and rural clinics could push those community facilities to cut hours or close down altogether (Gorn, 5/10).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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